 Venus succeeded despite losing two of her three round-robin games |
Svetlana Kuznetsova beat fellow Russian Elena Dementieva at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha - to send Venus Williams into the semi-finals. Dementieva could have qualified from the Maroon Group with a win, but she played poorly in a 6-3 6-2 defeat. Earlier, Jelena Jankovic reached the last four with a 6-2 6-2 rout of Caroline Wozniacki in the White Group. Denmark's Wozniacki progressed after Victoria Azarenka retired due to cramp when trailing Agnieszka Radwanska. Defending champion Venus joins her sister Serena as the two players qualified from the Maroon Group to reach Saturday's semi-finals. Venus will face Jankovic, while Serena plays Wozniacki for a place in the final of the $US4.55m tournament with the eventual champion taking home (£944,000).  | 606: DEBATE |
In Jankovic's match, the eighth-seeded Serb broke twice in the first set and quickly opened up a 4-0 lead in the second set. Jankovic came into the match far fresher than her 19-year-old opponent, who had spent a total of five hours and 48 minutes seeing off Azarenka and Vera Zvonareva in her previous two matches. In comparison, the 24-year-old Jankovic, defeated in her opener by Azarenka, had spent just 95 minutes in total on court in two matches after Dinara Safina withdrew from her second tie after only 12 minutes.  Cramp brings a disappointing end for Victoria Azarenka (right) |
"I wanted to reach the semi-finals and I didn't want to get into long rallies with Caroline," said Jankovic, who admitted she had let herself down in her opening defeat to Azarenka. "I only arrived on Sunday from Moscow where it was very cold and here it's very hot. It takes time to get used to the conditions. It was a bad day against Victoria. "But in tournaments like these it's important how you finish, not how you start." Azarenka became the second player to succumb to cramp, after Wozniacki, and her withdrawal meant the Danish teenager grabbed the last semi-final place up for grabs on Friday. The Belarussian seemed to be easing to a straight sets victory that would have seen her top the white group when she took a 6-4 5-2 lead over Radwanska. But nerves seemed to affect Azarenka and she lost five successive games to lose the second set. Struggling badly in the third set, Azarenka survived five games before conceding in floods of tears after two hour and 32 minutes and two injury timeouts with the score on 4-6 7-5 4-1.
Saturday's order of play: Venus Williams v Jelena Jankovic
Serena Williams v Caroline Wozniacki
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