Errani, Petkovic advance at Gastein Ladies

Sara Errani of Italy. (AP/Anja Niedringhaus)

BAD GASTEIN, Austria — Sara Errani overcame a slow start to defeat Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Gastein Ladies on Friday.

The 14th-ranked Italian, who won the doubles at Wimbledon last week, was broken three times in the opening set as she won just six points on her serve.

Errani, who was seeded second, dominated play afterward to set up a semifinal against Shelby Rogers, who beat No. 7 Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-1, 7-5.

Appearing in her first WTA quarterfinal, the 147th-ranked qualifier from the United States dropped serve only once while Giorgi hit 11 double faults.

Earlier, Andrea Petkovic reached her third semifinal of the season by defeating Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.

The fourth-seeded German, who won her first of three career titles here in 2009, broke Voegele’s serve eight times in a match interrupted for 3 1/2 hours by rain at 1-1 in the second set.

Petkovic will next play Grace Min of the United States, who beat No. 8 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1 in just under an hour.

It’s the first WTA semifinal for the 138th-ranked Min, who won two events on the lower-tier ITF circuit this season.

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