Serena Williams continued her domination of Maria Sharapova with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 win in the quarter-finals of the US$1.3 million WTA Family Circle Cup on Friday.
Williams improved to 5-2 overall against the Russian who lost for just the second time in 26 matches this year.
“In the third set I started to play the Serena game,” said the fifth seeded American who has now won four straight against Sharapova. “I’m not new to this.”
PHOTO: EPA
The tournament lost its top seed and defending champion as Serbian Jelena Jankovic was eliminated by ninth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
The defeat left Jankovic still in search of her first title of the season.
Zvonareva advanced to a meeting with fourth-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva, who defeated seventh-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-4.
PHOTO: AP
Williams, 26, will face France’s Alize Cornet, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Hungarian Agnes Szavay.
Williams, the former No. 1 is attempting to capture her third consecutive tournament at this clay court event, having won consecutive titles in Bangalore and Miami.
“This is definitely a big win, but I still want to win the next round and win the tournament,” said Williams, who is ranked ninth in the world.
Facing Williams for the first time on clay, Sharapova was in control early and served for the first set at 5-4.
Williams, however, reeled off the next three games — including two breaks — to steal the set.
“I was lucky to hang in there during the first set,” said Williams, who is 17-1 this season. “In the third set I finally started playing the Serena game.”
Sharapova rebounded to even the match at one set apiece, but Williams dominated the decisive third set, opening up a commanding 5-0 lead en route to the win.
Sharapova’s record against Williams is just one of two losing marks against current players ranked within the top 10, the other being her 3-6 record against world No. 1 Justine Henin.
Federer wins through
AFP, ESTORIL, Portugal
Roger Federer battled changing weather, which went from sun to rain and back, before beating Portugal’s Frederico Gil 6-4, 6-1 to reach the Estoril Open semi-finals on Friday.
A quarter-final twice interrupted by the unpredictable conditions sent the players off court for 35 minutes in the first set and another 25 in the third game of the second. Federer, working to lift his first title of the season as he begins the pre-French Open clay campaign working with Spanish coach Jose Higueras, was able to come out after the second interruption to finish the job.
“Conditions were tough, you play in heavy conditions, the rain comes, you leave the court and come back and you change quite a bit,” said the world No. 1, now 14-4 on the season.
“There was a lot of wind as well. I didn’t know my opponent at all, I’d never seen him play. That made it tricky,” he said.
“He played well for set and a half. Thank God I came back from the second rain delay and had the right game plan. I had to play a really good match today to win,” Federer said.
The top seed will now face Germany’s Denis Gremelmayr, who beat Czech Jiri Vanek 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, for a place in the final. Nikolay Davydenko stretched his spring win streak to ten matches as he joined Federer in the last four.
The Russian second seed, who won the prestigious Miami Masters title this month, fought past Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 on the heavy clay.
Davydenko, who confessed that his mental strength is draining away after his run of form, will face Florent Serra of France, who beat Italy’s Flavio Cipolla 6-1, 6-1.
In the women’s tournament, second-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko moved into the semis with a convincing win over Italian Tathiana Garbin 6-0, 6-1 while Czech Iveta Benesova defeated French eighth seed Camille Pin 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Blake makes semis
AP, HOUSTON
Top-seeded James Blake advanced to the semi-finals of the US Men’s Clay Court Championship with a quick 6-4, 6-3 victory over Argentine Agustin Calleri on Friday.
Blake, trying to reach his first clay court final on the ATP Tour, will meet Oscar Hernandez in the semi-finals, after the Spaniard beat American Mardy Fish 6-2, 7-6 (5).
The other semi-final will see Marcel Granollers-Pujol meet American Wayne Odesnik. It will be the first tour semi-final for both players.
Granollers-Pujol swept past Brazilian Marcos Daniel 6-3, 6-2, while Odesnik survived a match point against him in the second-set tiebreaker to beat Argentine Sergio Roitman 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Blake needed just 67 minutes to eliminate Calleri.
Despite the short match, “he made me work for it,” Blake said afterward. “He’s an excellent player but tonight I played good.”
Blake, ranked No. 8, broke Calleri to close out the first set.
During the break between sets, Calleri called a trainer out to tend to his left hamstring. Strapping was placed on the leg a few games later.
“I tried to stay focused because sometimes you can let your concentration go if a guy looks possibly injured,” Blake said. “I felt like I did a pretty good job of not letting that happen, still going for my shots, not just pushing and let him start dictating just because he might be a little injured.”
In their only previous match, Blake beat Hernandez in two sets last year in Switzerland.
“Spaniards are generally tough on clay,” Blake said. “The only time I’ve played him was on hard courts, so it’ll be a little different tomorrow. He’ll have a lot more time to deal with my aggressive play, and we’ll see if I can keep pushing it towards him.
Almagro boosts hopes
AP, VALENCIA, Spain
Fifth-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro boosted his hopes of a third straight Valencia Open title with a 6-3, 6-2 win over second-seeded Juan Monaco in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Almagro, who is also aiming for his third ATP title of the season, won all four of his break points against the Argentine in his 13th straight win in the tournament.
In yesterday’s semi-finals, he was to face the only unseeded player remaining in the tournament, Russia’s Evgeny Korolev.
Korolev, who has never won an ATP title ranked 113th, beat unseeded Dutchman Robin Haase 7-5, 6-4.
Top-seeded David Ferrer advanced to the last four by winning a tough match against seventh-seeded fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.
Ferrer, who had lost his previous two matches against the 2004 champion Verdasco, once again came close to defeat but managed to survived two match points in the final set.
Ferrer will play third-seeded Tommy Robredo, who became the third Spaniard to progress when eighth-seeded Potito Starace of Italy retired with a hip injury when trailing 3-0 in the second set.
Robredo won the first set 6-3 against last year’s finalist.
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