(Reuters) - Top seed Ashleigh Barty, third seed Naomi Osaka, British number one Johanna Konta and defending champion Donna Vekic all won on Friday to set up high-quality semi-finals in the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham.
Home favourite Konta eased to a 6-4 6-2 win over Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic to set up a repeat of last year's thrilling final with Vekic, who ran out a routine 7-5 6-1 victor over German Mona Berthel, in Saturday's semi-finals.
Australian Barty recorded a comfortable 6-0 6-2 victory against British wild card Katie Boulter to set up a mouth-watering clash against Japan's Osaka, who brushed aside Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-4 6-1 in a little over an hour.
"She's a very big, powerful player with a great serve and a great first ball behind her serve. I think I'm going to have to use a lot of variety to try and extend those points and get into the points," Barty said of Osaka.
(Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Ian Chadband)
