Top seed Simona Halep cruised through to the semi-finals having trailed 3-0 in the opening set to Karolina Pliskova. The Romanian lost just two more games on her way to a 6/3 6/2 victory. Pliskova all but admitted after that this is a horrid matchup for her. This takes the head to head to 6-2 and Pliskova’s only two wins were in the Fed Cup. She quickly fell away today having not got the double break as Halep then exposed her movement. What was interesting was the Romanian said after that she can get a read on the Pliskova serve. There is a few who would love to have that formula right now!

She will face Angie Kerber in the semi after the German comfortably ousted Madison Keys 6/2 6/1.Keys is very much in the same category as Pliskova right now. An off day on serve is more than just costly! She has been serving bombs all last week but when she faced the standout performer of the season so far she fluffed her lines. I was reading Lindsay Davenport (Keys coach) comments about the quarter-final. I thought at the time there seemed to be a huge amount of respect and admiration for the German. Maybe a bit too much with hindsight.

Hyeon Chung gave Tennys Sandgren a straight sets going over to reach the semis. After reading about Sandgren’s previous tweets and as a huge Williams fan (Renas Army), I was more than happy to see that he was outplayed in pretty much every department by the Korean. Most of the tweets have been deleted from the past after this run, but there are screenshots and he’s had to fend off rumours of being a far-right sympathiser! Maybe the Serena comments have been misplaced but he will struggle to get out of other derogatory comments made. Quite ironic that a Korean put the nails in his coffin wouldn’t you say? Chung continues to impress and though it won’t be well received in many parts (Fed-Ex fans) I would love to see an Edmund v Chung final!

He will have to derail the Fed-Express to keep his side of the bargain. Having failed to serve out the first set today, Berdych folded pretty disappointingly. When Fed gets a sniff of a weakness he tends to raise his game. He even had time to wave at Berdych, who was on his way down as his level dropped, the Fed-Express soared to a 7/6 6/3 6/4 win. This was pretty frustrating, to say the least from the Czech. He was genuinely playing well enough to give this more than just a go. He says it’s been a great tournament for him and all in all it has. It could have been better though.

Andy Del Potro