Ivanovic Sets Up Venus Clash in Zürich

When Ana Ivanovic went all the way at Roland Garros in June, nobody dreamt it would be four long months before the 20-year-old Serb would reach another semifinal. But finally she did just that at the Tennis.com Zürich Open on Friday, improving her post French Open record to 7-6. The task only gets harder though, as her opponent in the last four will be Venus Williams; Flavia Pennetta faces Anabel Medina Garrigues in the other semi.
 
A day after her upset of world No.1 Jelena Jankovic in the quarters, Pennetta was first to win through to the last four at the expense of Katarina Srebotnik. The first set was close, but when the Italian broke serve and then took the opener 7-5, she gathered momentum and breezed through the second set 6-2.
 
For her part, claycourt specialist Medina Garrigues advanced when Victoria Azarenka retired with a shoulder injury after the first two sets had been split between the pair, 46 63.
 
"I didn't realize she had a problem until she dropped her racquet after the rally at 34, 15-30 in the second set," said Medina Garrigues. "I could see she had problems after that, and when she served at 3-5.
 
"It's never nice to win a match like this as I know what it's like to be injured but I hope she will be OK," the Spaniard added. "I am very happy to be in my first indoor semifinal and to play against someone I know well like Flavia. Maybe she has a better game to play indoors than me but I will still fight my hardest." Having already played four matches, the pair is tied at 2-2.
 
Williams, the No.3 seed, is expecting a tough semifinal too, after the American came through a sometimes scratchy encounter against wily Italian Francesca Schiavone. Half of the 18 games played were breaks of serve, including a five game stretch in the first set when neither woman was able to hold. But with the opener in the bag Williams started to find her rhythm, breaking twice for a 4-1 lead in the second. Schiavone retrieved one of the breaks for 2-4 but could do no more as Williams advanced, 63 63.
 
"I was happy with the way my serve worked at the end of the first and second set today it got me out of a lot of trouble," said Williams, who still has a shot at qualification for the Sony Ericsson Championships at Doha next month. "She was hitting the balls very hard today, going for a lot, sometimes maybe too much but I'm happy with the win. Either way tomorrow I'm going to play my game and if it's Ana I'm looking forward to playing her, it should be a nice match."
 
Ivanovic confirmed the appointment by defeating Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova in the last match of the day, 61 64. Playing her second - and biggest - Tour quarterfinal to date, Kvitova, 18, served five double faults in her second service game to hand Ivanovic a 3-1 lead. By the time Ivanovic had won eight games on the trot the Serb was up 3-0 in the second set; although the No.2 seed lost her next three service games to let Kvitova stay in the hunt, ultimately her greater experience told, and she was able to capitalize on two further breaks to close out the match.
 
Williams owns a 4-1 record against Ivanovic, although the younger player won their most recent match, at the Australian Open last January.