Top-seeded Flavia Pennetta defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-2 on Friday to reach her second semi-final of the season at the Palermo Open.
The 21st-ranked Italian, who won the event in 2009 and was runner-up last year, will play Polona Hercog of Slovenia, who earned her first career title in Bastad, Sweden, last week.
Four-time champion Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic also reached the semi-finals.
Photo: AFP
Pennetta lost her opening service game against Pironkova, but quickly started to dominate the match.
Pennetta broke the 49th-ranked Bulgarian three times to take the first set. She added two more breaks in the second and closed out the win when Pironkova netted a forehand.
The 20-year-old Hercog extended her winning streak on the WTA circuit to eight matches by routing fourth-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-1. Hercog converted six of her seven break points.
Medina Garrigues defeated Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-2, 1-6, 6-0. The 39th-ranked Spaniard, who lost to Begu in the semi-finals in Budapest, Hungary, last week, wrapped up the victory on her second match point.
Medina Garrigues will next face the 62nd-ranked Cetkovska, who rallied to edge the third-seeded 2008 champion Sara Errani 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) and reach her first career semi-final.
MERCEDES CUP
AP, STUTTGART, GERMANY
Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-3 in an all-Spanish showdown to reach the semi-finals of the clay-court Mercedes Cup on Friday.
Ferrero will next play Federico del Bonis of Argentina, who advanced to his first career semi-final on the tour by cruising past fellow qualifier Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.
Pablo Andujar of Spain ended the run of wild-card Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, easing past the German 6-2, 6-1 to earn a semi-final match against Lukasz Kubot of Poland. Stebe posted his first two wins on the tour to reach the quarter-finals.
Kubot outlasted Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
All four players have reached the semi-finals of a tournament for the first time this year. None of the eight seeded players made it past the second round.
SWEDISH OPEN
AP, BASTAD, SWEDEN
Top-seeded Robin Soderling eased into the Swedish Open semi-finals on Friday with a 6-3, 6-4 win over eighth-seeded Potito Starace of Italy.
The Swede will next face third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who ousted Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic 6-1, 6-4.
Second-seeded David Ferrer of Spain also advanced by beating Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-1, 6-1. He will meet fourth-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who defeated Sweden’s Andreas -Ryderstedt, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Almagro and Ryderstedt both had to complete their second-round matches earlier on Friday after they were suspended because of rain. Ryderstedt beat Spain’s Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4, 6-2 and Almagro defeated fellow Spaniard Guillermo Olaso 6-2, 6-3.
GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-3 on Friday to reach her first semi-final of the season at the Gastein Ladies.
The 54th-ranked Spaniard rallied from 5-2 down to win the opening set. She converted her second match point after a three-hour rain delay in the final set.
Patricia Mayr-Archleitner of Austria routed Bulgarian qualifier Dia Evtimova 6-2, 6-2 to reach her second career semi-final after Bogota, Colombia, two years ago.
The 109th-ranked Mayr-Archleitner conceded only five points on serve in the opening set and quickly regained control of the match after dropping serve early in the second.
The two remaining quarter-final matches were interrupted by another rain delay and rescheduled for yesterday morning.
The eighth-seeded Ksenia Pervak of Russia was leading Spain’s Laura Pous-Tio 3-0 and Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine was 5-2 ahead against Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
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