Semifinals set in Moscow and Luxembourg

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Wilson Blade 9

Both this week’s tournaments are at the semifinal stage, and while at the Premier-level Moscow we’re having three of the top four seeds in the semis, the International-level Luxembourg had only the top seed in the quarterfinals and now she’s out too.

Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki, both in the shaky career periods, or in Ivanovic’s case sort of an era, have made a nice progress to the big Moscow semifinals. The third-seeded Wozniacki took out defending champion Dominika Cibulkova, but only after serving for the match twice in the second set and both times getting broken at love to finally win in the third set, 6-2 6-7(1) 6-1. Wozniacki’s semifinal opponent will be fellow Scandinavian Sofia Arvidsson, who had eliminated seed No.2 Marion Bartoli and now Maria Kirilenko, the only representative of Russia left in the draw, 6-3 6-3.

The other semifinal pairing is top seed Samantha Stosur vs. fourth seed Ana Ivanovic, in their first clash since 2009. Stosur beat Klara Zakopalova 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals, while Ivanovic beat fellow Serbian Vesna Dolonc 6-4 6-1 in their first career meeting.

In the Luxembourg quarterfinal action, in her first tournament since the US Open, Venus Williams defeated top seed Roberta Vinci 7-6(2) 6-4, the only seeded player in the final eight. Next for the American is Andrea Petkovic, also on an injury comeback, who beat Jelena Jankovic in the second round for her first back-to-back wins since early January and today she was better than Ksenia Pervak, 6-3 6-2. The other semifinal will feature Daniela Hantuchova and Monica Niculescu. The Slovakian advanced with a 7-5 6-0 win over Lourdes Dominguez Lino, while the Romanian beat Lucie Hradecka 6-0 6-4. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

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