Sixth seed Venus Williams lost 6-4 2-6 6-4 to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in the opening round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Pennetta and Williams exhanged breaks in the first set. The world No.18 Pennetta broke decisively on her third chance in the ninth game. Williams broke twice in the second set, but dropped serve in the first game of the third set and never recovered.

With the victory at the Kremlin Cup Pennetta has improved her record against Williams to 3-1.

The top four seeds, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Ana Ivanovic, have byes into the second round. (source: AP, photo: Getty Images)

Sixth seed Dinara Safina advanced to the US Open semifinals with an easy 6-2 6-3 win over 16th seed Flavia Pennetta.

Safina earned a service break in the second game and later broke serve again to close out the first set. In the second, Pennetta broke at love to go up 2-1, but Safina broke right back, and then again for a 4-2 lead. The Russian cruised the rest of the way.

The 22-year-old Safina will play one of the Williams sisters in the semis.

On day eight of the US Open Safina said: "Sometimes, wherever I am, I feel like I have already been there for a year." Hopefully she has overcome that feeling, she will need to be fully rested to overcome her next opponent.

BTW: I really like this quote of Pennetta:

Can you just talk a little bit about your decision this year to really make a big push and to commit to your tennis?

"What decision? I just work a lot. It's not a big decision." We can all learn from this! (source: The New York Times, photo: safina-dinara.com)

Number 16 seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy eased through to a matchup with Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina with a 6-3 6-0 victory over Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round of the US Open.

Former world number one Mauresmo was struggling to find form for a long time, but has recently shown signs of getting back on track. In the match against Pennetta, however, Mauresmo produced 14 doubles and 40 unforced errors, and eased the Italian’s way into her first Grand Slam quarterfinals.

Safina and Pennetta have played each other four times, and all the encounters were won by the Russian. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

In-form Italian Flavia Pennetta outclassed Taiwanese teenager Chan Yung-jan 6-1 6-3 to win the PTT Bangkok Open on Sunday. The victory at the Tier III tournament in Thailand is the third tour title of the 49th-ranked Italian.

Seventh-seeded Pennetta, who beat Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the semifinals, dominated in the final interrupted by four hours of rain.

"She played well, didn't make mistakes and deserved to win," said Chan Yung-jan, who was playing in her first WTA final. (source: Sports Illustrated, photo via Yahoo)