MONTRÉAL, Canada – No.2 seed Angelique Kerber’s Rogers Cup challenge continued to gain momentum after a dominant quarterfinal victory over Daria Kasatkina.

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In an intergenerational battle it was Kerber’s experience that held sway, sweeping aside her teenage opponent, 6-2, 6-2 in exactly an hour.

Kerber arrived Canada with fitness concerns – an elbow injury forced her to pull out of last week’s Ericsson Open – and has used the rounds to play herself into form and fitness. Against Kasatkina, she got off to an inauspicious start, erring on a couple of forehands to drop serve in the opening game.

She did not trail for long, though, the young Russian ballooning a wild forehand long to immediately hand back the initiative.

The swirling wind and her opponent’s precise returning intensified Kasatkina’s service struggles. Kerber meanwhile was into her groove, rattling off the final three games of the first set before forging ahead in the second.

When the World No.33 thumped away a frustrated drive volley to finally hold serve at 4-1 it elicited sympathetic applause from the crowd. Unfortunately for the young Russian, there was little compassion from down the other end, Kerber taking the final two games to quash any hope of a comeback.

“She played a great tournament and she’s really dangerous,” Kerber said. “I think I played really well today and it’s really nice to be in the semis for the first time in Montréal. I was trying to focus on my game because it was the first time I met her and it worked!”

Next up is No.5 seed Simona Halep in a rematch of the Wimbledon quarterfinals. “It’s going to be tough. We’ve played a lot of good matches in the past. I’m sure the crowd will support both of us so I’m really looking forward to playing her tomorrow.”

Selfie d'après-match de notre 2e demi-finaliste @AngeliqueKerber avec les Petits As Banque Nationale. #CoupeRogers pic.twitter.com/HoFGrKErxt

— Coupe Rogers (@CoupeRogers) 29 July 2016