Spain’s Garbine Muguruza’s hopes of a Moscow victory were crushed by Estonian Anett Kontaveit on Friday, losing 6-1, 6-1.
Kontaveit hit 22 winners and six aces in a demonstration of powerful tennis and form that has seen her win 19 of her last 21 matches.
She will meet Olympic silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova in the semifinal after she had eliminated an error prone Russian No. 1 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-2.
Pavlyuchenkova hit 32 unforced errors in a match she was tipped to win.
No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka’s return from covid didn’t end and planned, she was beaten by Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-4.
Former No. 1 Simona Halep also lost, going down to rising Greekstar Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-4.
