Venus struggles through as Clijsters cruises
Barry Wood
Defending champion Venus Williams overcame an ankle injury to beat Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and reach the semifinals of the Hamburg Cup on Friday.
Top seed Williams came from a set down for a 3-6 6-4 6-1 victory and will now face third seed Martina Hingis, who beat sixth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 7-5 6-4.
The other semifinal will be between second seed Kim Clijsters, who dismissed Barbara Schett 6-4 6-2, and fifth seed Jelena Dokic, who upset fourth seed Justine Henin 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3).
Williams, nursing a suspected strained tendon, was tentative at first and stayed largely on the baseline, and it was not until midway through the final set that she began to take control.
Up until that stage the eighth-seeded Spaniard had done her best to exploit Williams' lack of mobility, but a number of unforced errors and the American's greater aggression in the final stages prevented an upset.
"It was sore when I woke up this morning," said Williams of her ankle. "I definitely wanted to cut out on the movement.
"I didn't want to have any sudden twists. I don't know how it's going to be. I've never had an injury like this before. I'm on new ground - new shaky ground - so I just have to see how it goes."
Although she was in some pain, Williams did not consider retiring from the match.
"I wasn't really trying to push myself to the point where I would have to quit the match," she said. "I wanted to stay out there, of course for myself and also for the fans and the tournament.
"I thought if I could survive one more day I could have a fighting chance for the next day."
HINGIS PUSHED
Hingis avenged her defeat by Hantuchova in the final of the Indian Wells tournament in March, but it was the Slovak who dictated much of the play.
She often beat Hingis with well-struck forehands, and forced a number of errors with her deep groundstrokes or by stretching Hingis wide. But she also overhit the ball often enough to keep the Swiss number three seed in contention.
Hantuchova earned a set point at 5-4, but Hingis escaped when the Slovak netted a backhand, and then broke to lead 6-5 and served out to love for the set.
In the second set, Hingis took a 2-1 lead on her fifth break point, but she failed to convert another six break points for a 4-1 lead and allowed Hantuchova to level at 4-4.
The 2000 champion, however, hit back by forcing a backhand error to break again for 5-4, and then safely served out for victory.
Clijsters faltered only slightly on her way to an easy win over Schett, allowing her opponent to level at 3-3 after winning the first three games.
From there her positive performance always had Schett on the back foot and she was never under pressure.
By contrast, Dokic's victory over Henin was anything but routine. Dokic swept to a 5-1 lead before Henin won the next five games but failed to serve out for the set at 6-5.
Dokic then took the tiebreak, broke to lead 5-4 in the second set and held a match point, but was broken herself.
She served for the match a second time at 6-5 before again needing a tiebreak to close out the proceedings.
