USA's Mattek-Sands reaches Malaysian Open semifinals

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA defeated No. 2 seed and defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan 7-5, 6-2 on Friday to march into the Malaysian Open semifinals.

She'll face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who defeated Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-2, 6-0.

In the other quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Ayumi Morita of Japan defeated Thailand's Luksika Kumkhum 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.

Morita needed just over two hours to dispatch her 19-year-old opponent and set up a semifinal against Karolina Pliskova.

The Czech advanced with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner.