Radwanska survives a scare

Dubai: Seventh seed and world No.9 Agnieszka Radwanska shrugged off a charge from young pretender Regina Kulikova yesterday to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and book her place in today's semifinals of the 2010 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

Radwanska will meet fourth seed Victoria Azarenka after the Belarussian breezed past 12th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3 in a late-night match.

In an earlier quarterfinals played on one of the side courts, Israel's Shahar Peer also made it to the last-four stage after eighth-seeded Li Na withdrew with an injury to the lower back. Peer was leading 7-5, 3-0 when Na pulled out.

The last quarterfinal was to be played between defending champion Venus Williams and the tournament's youngest survivor Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with the winner going through for a meeting against Peer.

But riding her luck and nearly living her Dubai dream was the 99th-ranked Kulikova, winner of the $75,000 (Dh275,399) Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the end of last year. She had made it through two tough qualifying rounds and become only the fourth qualifier to make the quarterfinal grade at the competition after stunning fellow St. Petersburg resident and second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova late on Wednesday.

Kulikova seemed to be in a hurry to better that result as she broke her more fancied opponent in the sixth to win the first set 6-3. But the Pole turned it around and won the second 6-4 to force the deciding third set.

Kulikova received on-court treatment for her lower back after losing her serve to trail Radwanska 0-2 in the deciding set. But she came back strongly to break back and then held to draw level 2-2.

Radwanska concentrated on a percentage game attacking Kulikova's weaker backhand and this paid dividends as she broke her Russian opponent in the sixth and then held for 5-2 to ultimately wrap it up in two hours and 17 minutes.

Meanwhile, the lower half of the doubles semifinals were also decided with fourth seeds Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur overcoming fifth seeds Alisa Kleybanova and Francesca Schiavone 6-7 (4), 7-5, 1-0 (9) to set up a meeting against second seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

The day's last semifinalist was to be decided after a meeting between top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber and Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Dzehalevich later in the night.

RESULTS

Singles results: Shahar Peer bt Li Na 7-5, 3-0 (retd.); Agnieszka Radwanska bt Regina Kulikova 3-6, 6-4; 6-3; Victoria Azarenka bt Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3.

Doubles results: Nadia Petrova/Samantha Stosur bt Francesca Schiavone/Alisa Kleybanova 6-7 (4), 7-5, 1-0 (9); Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik bt Yung-Jan Chan/Jie Zheng 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (1); Nuria Llagostera Vives/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez bt Chia-Jung Chuang/Olga Govortsova 6-7 (7), 6-3, 1-0 (8).

Today's order of play: Centre Court (Start at 2 pm) Nadia Petrova/Samantha Stosur vs Nuria Llagostera Vives/Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez; (7 pm) Agnieszka Radwanska vs Victoria Azarenka; Cara Black/Liezel Huber OR Ekaterina Dzehalevich/Alla Kudryavtseva vs Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik.