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Venus advances into semifinals

Venus Williams volleys against Vera Zvonareva at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, Friday. PHOTO: AP

Venus Williams advanced to her first semifinal of the year Friday, beating Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup.

"I've never played in front of a crowd that's really, really been so behind me, ever," Williams said. "It's almost to the point of `OK, how do I deal with this?' So it's definitely, definitely nice."

Among those in the crowd cheering Williams was her sister, Serena, who was forced to withdraw from the tournament Thursday due to a sore knee.

Friday night, Patty Schnyder of Switzerland beat fourth-ranked Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-2.

Schnyder, seeded 11th, needed just 52 minutes to dispatch Davenport, who was coming off a victory at Ameilia Island last week. Davenport fell behind 0-4 in the first set and never recovered.

"Some days you go out there and it's not your day," Davenport said. "I really felt almost wiped out -- I don't know if it's from the last two weeks and I just wasn't on top of my game."

Schnyder reached the final here two years ago, in the process beating Jennifer Capriati, who was ranked No. 1 at the time.

Williams won four straight games after falling behind 4-2 in the second set to the ninth-seeded Zvonareva.

"I was a little disappointed that I had been in that situation," Williams said. "But at that point, all I could do was try to rectify it."

In the semifinals, Williams plays Jelena Kostanic of Croatia, a 7-6 (4), 6-2 winner over Petra Mandula of Hungary.

US Clay Court Championships

Andy Roddick was lucky he had a day off before facing tenacious Austrian Jurgen Melzer.

Roddick had to run down an exhausting number of drop shots Friday before finally beating Melzer 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals.

"I was just persistent," Roddick said. "I feel I've hit the ball better this tournament. I hung in there. I got the job in at the end of the day and got a win. That's what we come here to do."

The top-seeded Roddick has won 11 straight matches to improve his season record to 31-5. He has reached the Clay Court final the past three years, losing to Andre Agassi last year and winning twice.

Melzer fought off five break points in the eighth game of the second set to hold his serve. In the 10th game, the eighth-seeded Austrian evaded a match point trailing 5-4 with a drop-shot winner, one of many he used to tantalize Roddick in the match.

The set went to a tiebreaker, with Roddick finally getting the victory with an overhead slam.

Roddick will face seventh-seeded Luis Horna of Peru in the semifinals. Horna beat Todd Martin 7-5, 6-3.

In the other quarterfinals, fifth-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania beat fourth-seeded American James Blake 6-4, 6-4, and Tommy Haas of Germany routed Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 6-0.

Estoril Open

Marat Safin squeezed past fourth-seeded Tommy Robredo 7-6 (2), 2-6, 7-6 (5) into the semifinals Friday.

Robredo double-faulted on match point to eighth-seeded Safin, who moved into his first Estoril semifinals.

"It's really good to be in the semifinals, and it's really good for my confidence," Safin said.

"It was really difficult in the conditions and difficult for both of us to show our best tennis. We were both fighting against each other and fighting against ourselves. Neither of us wanted to lose, and I think that given the conditions, we played good tennis."

In Saturday's semifinals, Safin will play Irakli Labadze of Georgia.

In the women's quarterfinals, No. 3 seed Emilie Loit won her eighth successive match when she ousted Czech Klara Koukalova 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. The French player won her first career title last week at the Grand Prix SAR in Casablanca.

Loit will play Marta Marrero, who trounced fifth-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria 6-0, 6-2.

Loit beat Marrero in the quarterfinals in Casablanca, and was looking forward to another meeting with the Spaniard.

Valencia Open

Albert Montanes beat qualifier Marc Lopez 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 in a Spanish duel in the only quarterfinal completed in the rain-affected tournament on Friday.

Montanes, one of six Spanish players in the last eight, made it to his first semifinals since last July at Amersfoort, Netherlands.

"Even though I lost the first one, I was playing better and better, and once I took the lead I never let it go," Montanes said.

In the only other quarterfinal to start, Fernando Verdasco led seventh-seeded David Ferrer 5-2 before it was suspended by rain.
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