Anne Keothavong’s fine run at the RMK Championships in Memphis came to an end on Friday night.
Playing in her second WTA Tour semi-final of the year, Keothavong was beaten by the No.1 seed from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki, 6-1 6-0.
The British No.1 could not recapture the form that had seen her defeat Maria Elena Camerin, Michelle Larcher de Brito and Marina Erakovic in the early rounds.
“I’m obviously very disappointed to lose. I thought I just played terribly, the worst I’ve played all week. Like anything, you can have good days and bad days and this was obviously a very bad day,” said Keothavong.
However, the 25 year-old’s run to the last four is expected to push her into the world’s top 50 when the new rankings are published on Monday.
It will be the first time this feat has been achieved by a British female since Jo Durie in 1993 who reached a career-high ranking of No.5 in 1984.
“If I break into the top 50 then that’s great. It’s another milestone for me. If I can put in better performances and do better at these kind of events then the ranking will take care of itself,” added Keothavong.
Keothavong will now return to Britain to get ready for her next tournament, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, which gets under way in a fortnight.
In the men’s event, Jamie Murray and Dusan Vemic of Serbia bowed out in the doubles quarter-final, losing to Latvian Ernests Gulbis and Russian Igor Kunitsyn 3-6 7-6(3) [6-10].
At Open 13 in Marseille, Ross Hutchins and Australian Stephen Huss will meet the French pairing of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in Saturday’s doubles semi-final.