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Zvonareva beats Vinci to reach semis

Russia’s Vera Zvonareva returns the ball during her quarter-final match against Roberta Vinci of Italy at the ECM Prague Open 2008 tennis tournament in Prague, the Czech Republic, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Top seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva had a comfortable win yesterday as she beat the No. 13 seed Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-1, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Prague Open women’s singles.

The Muscovite will be joined in the semi-finals by third seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus who overcame the challenge of Czech wild card Karolina Pliskova 6-2 6-1.

Zvonareva, ranked No. 13 in the world, advanced to the quarter-finals of the clay court tournament after benefitting from a walkover against Slovakian wild card Magdalena Rybarikova on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Russian is challenging for her sixth WTA tour singles title and her first since 2006 when she won in Birmingham.

She was part of the Russian squad which reached the final of the Fed Cup by defeating the US in Moscow last weekend.

Zvonareva earned a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Vania King in the first singles rubber of the day last Sunday.

Meanwhile second-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday and was due to play No. 7 seed Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic yesterday.

Zakopalova beat Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia beat Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-0, 6-2 and was due to meet Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic yesterday

Also see: Nadal claims clay-court century
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