Pennetta, Cornet Move Into Acapulco Semifinals

Eight became four at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL presented by HSBC on Thursday, as all four quarterfinal matches took place at the third and final leg of the three-week Latin American clay court season. Among those moving into the semis was top seed Flavia Pennetta.
 
Pennetta was the first to advance, defeating No.8 seed Edina Gallovits, 76(4) 61. The Italian, who is bidding to make the final here for the fifth straight year, took three of the first four games of the match and even served for the set leading 5-4, but Gallovits rallied to bring the set to a tie-break, where she led 4-2 before Pennetta regained control, winning five points in a row to take the set. She raced through the second set in just 24 minutes.
 
"I'm not so happy about how I played today; I didn't hit the ball hard enough and she started picking up on how to play me," Pennetta said. "I lost chances to win the first set earlier too. But I'm happy because I didn't play so well but managed to win the match - and that's the important thing."
 
Pennetta's win over Gallovits was her 300th career singles match win.
 
"I didn't know that; 300 already?" Pennetta said afterwards. "I'm so happy about that. I never count. It's a big number!"
 
Awaiting Pennetta in the semifinals will be No.7 seed Kaia Kanepi, who won an intense battle with another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea, 62 46 76(6). Kanepi was in control of the third set far earlier than the tie-break, holding two match points leading 5-3; Cirstea kept fighting and wound up pulling the match into a tie-break and jumping ahead 5-2, and even held two match points leading 6-4, but the more experienced Estonian eventually closed out a marathon win.
 
Meeting for the other final berth are No.2 seed Alizé Cornet and Jill Craybas, who enjoyed far easier quarterfinal wins on Thursday. Cornet crushed Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva, 64 60, while Craybas beat Czech Iveta Benesova, 64 61.
 
Whilst Cornet and Craybas are playing for the first time, Pennetta and Kanepi have played twice before with the Estonian winning at the 2007 Australian Open, 75 76(3), and the Italian prevailing at Viña del Mar two weeks ago, 63 63.
 
Pennetta will also be on court on Friday for her doubles semifinal match; she is half of the top-seeded team, with countrywoman Maria Elena Camerin.

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