French Open finalist Samantha Stosur ended the British dream at the Eastbourne International on Thursday with a comeback 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-0 quarter-final win over Elena Baltacha.
Baltacha was the first woman from the host nation to play in the last-eight of the pre-Wimbledon event since Jo Durie in 1983.
However, world No. 9 and fifth seed Kim Clijsters was beaten as unseeded Victoria Azarenka claimed her fourth win this season over a top ten player 7-6 (8/6), 6-4. Belgium’s Clijsters steamed through her first two matches of the week, losing a total of three games before Azarenka brought the US Open winner back down to earth.
Clijsters lost the last four games of the match, ending with a forehand into the net.
Azarenka will next play Marion Bartoli after the French eighth seed reached the semis for the fourth year running with a 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) defeat of Spain’s Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez.
In the men’s draw, French eighth seed Michael Llodra beat third-seeded compatriot Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-3 to set up a semi-final with Ukrainian Oleksandr Dolgopolov, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Briton James Ward.
Unseeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan defeated Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-4, while fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez needed two and a half hours to defeat French fourth seed Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2).
■UNICEF OPEN
AFP, S’HERTOGENBOSCH, NETHERLANDS
Top seed Justine Henin continued to flex her muscles on grass ahead of Wimbledon as she advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP-WTA tournament on Thursday.
Belgian Henin, champion at this event in 2001, but playing it for the first time since 2003, has not dropped a set so far in the grasscourt tournament and saw off Germany’s Kristina Barrois 7-5, 6-3.
The two-time Wimbledon runner-up next meets Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru.
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, the seventh seed, ended the run of Czech qualifier Sandra Zahlavova 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
In the men’s event, defending champion Benjamin Becker beat fellow German Simon Greul 6-3, 6-1 in their quarter-final tie.
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
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