Serena Williams, still trying to put the sting of her Wimbledon final defeat behind her, reached the semi-finals of the Bank of the West Classic hard court tournament on Friday.
The top-seeded American, playing in Stanford for the first time, punched her ticket to the final four with a 6-3, 6-1 quarter-final victory over fifth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.
Williams next faces Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, who beat Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
PHOTO: AP
In other quarter-final matches, Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama advanced after 19-year-old Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova was forced to retire with left leg cramp.
Sugiyama battled back from the brink of defeat, saving three match points in the second set and was leading 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/5), 5-3, when the match was halted.
Sugiyama will face sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, who upset second seed and defending champion Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-3, 6-4.
Chakvetadze, 21, had hoped a move to the US hard courts would help her to turn around a so-far disappointing season.
■ INDIANAPOLIS
AFP, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
James Blake tightened up his game in dramatic fashion on Friday, hammering Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-2, 6-0 in 45 minutes for a semi-final spot at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
After struggling a day earlier to put away 293rd-ranked South Korean qualifier Jun Woong-sun, the 2006 champion and world No. 8 Blake was desperate to lift his level. The top seed did so in impressive style in the shortest match of the tournament to line up a clash with defending champion Dmitry Tursunov.
The Russian completed the first-ever move of all top four seeds into the semis of this event with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Chilean Paul Capdeville.
Frenchman Gilles Simon preyed on the frustrations of Tommy Haas in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat of the German. Simon, who won his third career ATP title in Casablanca last May, next faces the huge serve of American fourth seed Sam Querrey, who hammered 17 aces as he beat compatriot Bobby Reynolds 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
■ CROATIA OPEN
AP, UMAG, CROATIA
Italy’s Fabio Fognini upset five-time defending champion Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-3 in the Croatia Open quarter-finals on Friday.
Seventh-seeded Fognini, trying to reach his first ATP final, will play top-seeded Fernando Verdasco after the Spaniard defeated Mischa Zverev of Germany 7-5, 7-5. Verdasco trailed 1-3 in the first set and 3-5 in the second.
Fourth seed Igor Andreev of Russia will meet first-time ATP semi-finalist Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina, ranked 101st.
Andreev beat 2004 champion Guillermo Canas of Argentina 7-5, 6-4, and Gonzalez defeated Roko Karanusic of Croatia 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
■ AUSTRIAN OPEN
AP, KITZBUEHEL, AUSTRIA
Jurgen Melzer rallied to beat second-seeded Rainer Schuettler 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 on Friday and reach the semi-finals of the Austrian Open.
The sixth-seeded Austrian broke Schuettler’s serve at 5-5 in the final set and converted his first match point on a backhand volley.
In the semi-finals, Melzer will play fourth-seeded Potito Starace of Italy, who defeated No. 5 Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-1, 6-2.
Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina reached the semi-finals by beating Nicolas Devilder of France 6-2, 6-3.
The seventh-seeded Del Potro, who won the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart last week, saved five break points and converted all three chances he got to crack Devilder’s serve.
Victor Hanescu of Romania, who claimed the Swiss Open title last week, won 91 percent of the points on his first serve on his way to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Brian Dabul of Argentina.
■ GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA
Top seed Agnes Szavay saved four match points before defeating Melanie Klaffner of Austria 3-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/3) on Friday in the second round of the Gastein Ladies.
In the quarter-finals, the Hungarian will play seventh-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Galina Voskoboeva of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Earlier, Mariya Koryttseva upset third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5).
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