Wozniacki gives glimpse of old self in Kremlin win

Published on 20/10/2012 00:00

Former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki showed glimpses of her past form to beat last year’s champion Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 in the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals on yesterday.

The third seed from Denmark, looking for her second WTA title in a month after winning the Korea Open, will now take on unseeded Swede Sofia Arvidsson in Saturday’s semi-finals.

“It was a very good match today as both of us played very well,” Wozniacki, 22, told reporters. “The difference at the end was that I could just keep my highest level up and I managed to win the most important points, especially at the beginning of the third set.”

Arvidsson eased past seventh seed Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-3, knocking out the last remaining Russian in both the men’s and women’s singles of the Moscow indoor event.

On the men’s side, Malek Jaziri beat Czech Lukas Rosol 7-6, 6-3 to become the first Tunisian player to reach an ATP World Tour semi-final. Jaziri, who upset third-seed Viktor Troicki in the second round on Wednesday, saved all seven of the break points he faced and converted one of his eight opportunities to claim victory in one hour 44 minutes.

“I’m really happy to reach the semi-finals here and if I’m lucky enough, why not make my first Tour final?” said the world No 112, who will face second seed Andreas Seppi on Saturday.

Italy’s Seppi thrashed eighth-seeded Japanese Tatsuma Ito 6-2, 6-1 in less than an hour.

But French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who knocked out top seed Alexandr Dolgopolov on Thursday, could not repeat his heroics, going down to giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-3. Karlovic, who at 6ft 10in is one of the tallest players on the Tour, fired 23 aces against 116th-ranked Roger-Vasselin.

Venus Willians beat top-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-6 (2), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Luxembourg Open.

Playing in her first tournament since the US Open, Williams will next face Andrea Petkovic of Germany, who defeated Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-2. In the bottom half of the draw, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, 7-5, 6-0 to set up a central European semi-final against Monica Niculescu of Romania, who defeated Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, 6-0, 6-4.

Top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro and Janko Tipsarevic won in straight sets to reach the semi-finals of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Del Potro defeated Marinko Matosevic of Australia 6-2, 6-2 to line up a match against Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, while second-seeded Tipsarevic was leading 6-2, 4-2 when Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia retired with a left thigh injury.