Venus, Radwanska book spots in Friday's semis

Dubai: It will be defending champion Venus Williams taking on Shahar Peer, while fourth seed Victoria Azarenka will face 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the singles semifinals of the 2010 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Friday.

In a match between the tournament’s oldest and youngest surviving players late on Thursday, Venus Williams settled a personal score against the 18-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with a 6-3, 6-4 win in the day’s last quarterfinal, after Peer, Azarenka and Radwanska had all booked their rightful places in the last four stage of the competition.

Pavlyuchenkova has five career wins against top-10 ranked players so far and two of these have come against Venus – at the Tokyo Open and the Beijing Open in consecutive weeks in 2009.

Seventh seed and world No. 9 Radwanska shrugged off a charge from young pretender Regina Kulikova for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win for a right to meet Azarenka, who skirted past 12th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3.

Earlier in the afternoon, Peer played some astounding tennis against Li Na while leading 7-5, 3-0 before the Chinese limped out with a lower back injury.

But riding her luck and nearly living her dream here was the 99th ranked Kulikova, winner of the $75,000 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 this competition after stunning fellow St. Petersburg resident and second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova late on Wednesday.

The best-ever performance here from a qualifier came way back in 2001 after Australia’s Rachel McQuillan went all the way till she lost to Nathalie Tauziat in the semifinal. Lina Krasnoroutskaya had also made the quarterfinals in 2001, while another Russian Elena Vesnina had reached the last eight stages last year after starting as a qualifier.

Kulikova seemed to be in a hurry to better than 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.

Doubles semis

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 second seeded pairing from Spain overcame Chia-Jung Chuang of Taipei and Olga Govortsova of Belarus to reach the semifinals.

The day’s last semifinalist was decided later in the night when top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber got past Alla Kudryavtseva and Ekaterina Dzehalevich 6-0, 7-6 later in the night.

Friday’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 Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik.

Singles results: Shahar Peer bt Li Na 7-5, 3-0 (retd.); Agnieszka Radwanska bt Regina Kulikova 3-6, 6-4; 6-3; Venus Williams bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-4; 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); Cara Black/Liezel Huber bt Alla Kudryavtseva/Ekaterina Dzehalevich 6-0, 7-6.