Peng Survives Niculescu in Quarterfinal Marathon

The favorites at the $145,000 Tashkent Open flourished on Friday, as all four quarterfinals went to form. The most notable match-up involved the top-seeded Peng Shuai and crafty Romanian Monica Niculescu and it was Peng who delivered in the end, in three tough sets.
 
Peng, who is in the hunt for her first ever Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title, drew the only seeded quarterfinal opponent and was forced to fight hard for a three set victory, 67(6) 62 64; she had two set points in the first set leading 6-4 in the tie-break before the No.6-seeded Romanian rallied to win it, but the Chinese didn't let up and stayed out there two hours, 53 minutes.
 
Next up for Peng will be No.4 seed Sabine Lisicki, who survived a marathon of her own, getting past Urszula Radwanska in a two-hour, 34-minute war of attrition, 36 75 76(4). Radwanska held a 63 31 lead before Lisicki stormed back to take the second set, and the two duked it out in a 63-minute third before Lisicki won.
 
"I didn't play well in the beginning and was battling to get into the match," Lisicki said. "I played some good shots, but my opponent played better. The match was so close, and it came down to me having to play point by point. But the important part is to win when you don't play your best, and that's what I did."
 
On the bottom half of the draw it was No.3 seed Sorana Cirstea and No.5 seed Magdalena Rybarikova who moved into the semifinals, with Cirstea defeating Michelle Larcher de Brito, 62 76(5), and Rybarikova crushing Ioana Raluca Olaru in just over an hour, 61 62.
 
Peng and Cirstea are the only semifinalists to have been to a Tour singles final before. Peng is 0-3 in them, finishing runner-up at Strasbourg in 2006 and at Forest Hills and Guangzhou this year; Cirstea is 0-1, finishing runner-up at Budapest last year. Lisicki and Rybarikova will be playing in their first semifinals.
 
Both doubles semifinals were also played on Friday. Olaru and Olga Savchuk beat Alexandra Panova and Rybarikova, 62 62, while Nina Bratchikova and Kathrin Woerle beat Andreja Klepac and Olaru, 64 76(5). The doubles final will be played on Saturday, following the singles semifinals.

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