Former champions Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko stormed into the semi-finals of the Eastbourne WTA tournament on Thursday with commanding straight-sets victories in the Wimbledon warm-up event.
Keys, the 2014 and 2023 Eastbourne title-winner, has still to drop a set at this year's edition following a 6-3, 6-1 quarter-final win over McCartney Kessler in an all-American clash on England's south coast.
Meanwhile, 2021 Eastbourne champion Ostapenko cruised into the last four with a 6-3, 6-0 defeat of Zeynep Sonmez, despite suffering from heat stroke the previous night. Keys and Ostapenko are the last two seeds left in the women's draw.
They each have one Grand Slam singles title to their credit, with Latvia's Ostapenko, 29, the 2017 French Open champion and Keys, 31, triumphing at last year's Australian Open.
Keys will face Petra Martinko in her semi-final after the Croatian defeated Caty McNally 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a gruelling two hours and 18 minutes.
"I'm very happy with today's performance," said Keys after reaching her fourth semi-final on Eastbourne's grass courts.
Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Ostapenko, who will now face Tatjana Maria after she won 6-3, 7-5 against Tereza Valentova, was just pleased to back in action on Thursday.
"I didn't think I was going to play today," she said. "After the match yesterday at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) I had heat stroke so I felt really bad."
In the parallel ATP men's event, former wold number four Jack Draper continued his promising return from injury under the guidance of British tennis great Andy Murray with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Gabriel Diallo that saw him into his first semi-final since Queen's last year.
Draper will now play France's Ugo Humbert at Eastbourne after he defeated compatriot Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4.
And Draper won't be the only British man in the semi-finals at Devonshire Park after 'lucky loser' Toby Samuel enjoyed the biggest win of his professional career with a 6-3, 6-4 success against eighth seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
Samuel will now face Belgium's Zizou Bergs after he defeated British qualifier Jan Choinski 6-3, 6-3.
