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Venus, Kerber make Tokyo semis
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Venus Williams beat Canadian teen Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 to advance to the Pan Pacific Open semifinals for the first time yesterday.
Williams, whose previous best in Tokyo was the quarterfinals in 2004, broke Bouchard with a forehand down the line to go up 5-2 in the third set and held on to win the match that lasted three hours at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo.
“She played so well,” Williams said. “She’s going to be a great player — she’s already a great player — and it was just a fight to the end.”
Williams will face Petra Kvitova in the semis. The seventh-seeded Czech beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-1.
Also, fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to set up a semifinal with fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany, who ousted second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 6-4. Wozniacki and Kerber are 3-3 head to head. The Dane won their semifinal at Indian Wells in March.
The 19-year-old Bouchard put Williams on notice when she built a 3-1 lead in the quarterfinal. Williams fought back to break the teenager three times in their first meeting. In the second set, Bouchard capitalized on her second set point, winning the tiebreak 7-4.
“I was just fighting until the end,” Williams said. “It was disappointing to lose the second set, but to win the third set is the goal, so I’m happy.”
In Bangkok, Milos Raonic of Canada took only one of 16 break chances and still overcame Marinko Matosevic of Australia 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 to open his account at the Thailand Open yesterday.
After a first-round bye, Raonic had to dig deep in a 2 1/2-hour match featuring lengthy baseline rallies.
“I created my opportunities but I wasn’t converting any,” he said. “He was playing so well on a lot of break points and a few I didn’t play well. I just kept plugging away and finally broke him (in the third set).”
Gilles Simon of France, the 2009 champion and last year’s runner-up, also reached the quarterfinals when he defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 7-5. The win was his 300th on the ATP tour, and sixth in a row following his title run in Metz last week.
“I feel confident on court, I was playing great tennis in Metz,” Simon said. “Now I’m a bit tired and I have to be careful not to get injured because I just came back from injuries.”
Also, Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei ousted eighth-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 to be the last Asian in the draw, and fifth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia won through.
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