World No.3 Venus Williams is now just one step away from her third Bank of the West Classic title, having reached her seventh final at the tournament. Her opponent in the title match will be last year's finalist, France's Marion Bartoli.

The second-seeded Williams crashed third seed Elena Dementieva 6-0 6-1 and scored her ninth win, and sixth straight, in 11 career encounters with the Russian.

In the other semifinal, eighth seed Marion Bartoli won a see-saw match against Samantha Stosur 6-3 1-6 6-1. Bartoli took control of the deciding set by winning four games in a row en route to the two-hour, four-minute victory.

Williams and Bartoli have met only once before, in nothing less than the final of Wimbledon, and the American won 6-4 6-1.

Additional info: Along sister Serena, Venus Williams is also competing in the doubles final at Stanford. (photo courtesy of our reader Colleen)

World No.14 Marion Bartoli, Jelena Jankovic’s opponent in the upcoming quarterfinal of the Bank of the West Classic, said before Jankovic's second round match against Sabine Lisicki that she would rather face Jankovic than Lisicki.

Bartoli’s reason is the following: "I always beat her." The Frenchwoman is 4-3 against the sixth-ranked Jankovic and has won their last three matches.

Haha, JJ was, of course, stunned to hear the comment and here’s her reaction:

She talks like she’s just Serena Williams. Everybody had a right to say what she wants. I’m not really focused on Bartoli. She’s not like my biggest rival or someone I look up to or I’m scared of. She’s just one of the players on tour, not a big name, or someone who is making the big results or headlines in the game.

"Bartoli is going to get it tomorrow," Jankovic added with a smile. Hahaha, she will even have her revenge.

Additional info: Interestingly, even Jelena Jankovic, a slamless No.1 herself, doesn’t think that Dinara Safina is the world’s best player. JJ finds herself the best, and she would put Serena Williams second.

Haha, it's so bizarre. If anyone Jankovic should be the one defending Safina, but no, she’s even saying this: "To be number one, you should be complete and if you are number one you have to be beating the Williams sisters. I’m one of the rare players who has a positive record against the Williams sisters"

Note: Jankovic is 5-4 against Venus and 3-4 against Serena. (source: Tennis Reporters, photo: Forty Deuce)

Marion Bartoli could miss Wimbledon as she had to withdraw from her semifinal against fellow Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano at the AEGON International.

"If it is a strain then there is not much chance I can play next week," said the 2007 Wimbledon finalist Bartoli, who has been seeded 12th for this year’s Wimbledon.

"The doctors can't yet say what the diagnosis is because it is too soon. I need to wait until tomorrow and see," added the world No.12 Bartoli.

Bartoli had lost the first set 6-4, before asking for the trainer to be summoned and having her thigh treated and strapped out. However, she withdrew after losing the first game of the second set.

Bartoli refused to shake hands with Razzano before leaving the Centre Court, and later left the press conference in tears.

Razzano will play sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki in the Saturday’s final of the Wimbledon warm-up event. Wozniacki had beaten Aleksandra Wozniak 3-6 6-4 6-4 in the semifinal. (source: Reuters, photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

Seeded players were mostly successful as the bottom half of the draw played the second round at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

Two of the Top 8 seeds in action cruised, No.2 seed Dinara Safina and No.7 Ana Ivanovic. Seed No.4 Elena Dementieva and No.8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova survived their three-setters.

No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-2, the player who was shining last week at Indian Wells. Wildcard Jelena Dokic reached the second round, but couldn’t overcome Caroline Wozniacki, and lost 6-3 5-7 6-2.

Seed No.15 Flavia Pennetta edged doubles partner Maria Kirilenko, while No.12 seed Marion Bartoli became the first big upset of the week, falling to qualifier Anastasiya Yakimova 6-4 6-3 and enabling Yakimova to score her first Top 20 win.

Seed No.27 seed Sybille Bammer and No.28 seed Alona Bondarenko were also upset, falling easily to Samantha Stosur and Nicole Vaidisova, 6-1 6-1 and 6-1 6-0, respectively.

Others advanced well, including: No.18 seed Patty Schnyder, No.20 seed Amelie Mauresmo, No.22 seed Anna Chakvetadze, No.24 seed Alisa Kleybanova, No.25 seed Agnes Szavay and No.31 seed Carla Suarez Navarro. (source and photo: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Second seed Marion Bartoli of France won her 300th career singles match and first title this year, beating China's Li Na 6-4 6-3 in the final of the Monterrey Open in Mexico.

Bartoli’s biggest competition on paper was top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, but she was upset in the first round by unseeded Li.

The Monterrey Open title is Bartoli’s fourth career singles title. The 24-year-old won Auckland, Tokyo and Quebec City in 2006. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

The quarterfinal clash between Vera Zvonareva and Marion Batoli was much shorter than expected, as the Russian seventh seed eased past the No.16 seed from France 6-3 6-0.

This match can easily be summed up: Bartoli established a 3-1, and after that Zvonareva won all the following games. Spectacular Bartoli sent home top seed and world No.1 Jelena Jankovic in the previous round, but was a huge disappointment against Zvonareva.

Zvonareva has now reached her first semifinal of a Grand Slam and to make things even better, she hasn’t lost a set at the 2009 Australian Open yet, while as much as four sets she has won 6-0.

Zvonareva will next face the winner of the Dinara Safina vs. Jelena Dokic match. (photo: Getty Images)

Seed No.16 Marion Bartoli crushed top seed and world No.1 Jelena Jankovic 6-1 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Bartoli’s performance was impressive. She was moving well and ruthlessly used every Jankovic’s second serve. Jankovic, on the other hand, was only occasionally coming into the match, and seemed blocked throughout.

Bartoli won the first set so fast that I thought I was dreaming. Before you knew it she was leading 5-0. Jankovic gave more resistance in the second set, coming back from a break down two times, but at 4-4 Bartoli broke once again and in the following game she earned three successive match points.

Bartoli was dominating the whole match, while Jankovic was constantly saving herself from embarrassment. I don’t know what happened to Jankovic, but the best she could do was to at least win a few games. Jankovic’s proving to everyone that she can win a Grand Slam ended with a straightforward loss. Too bad.

Bartoli, who was a Brisbane finalist this year, will face either Nadia Petrova or Vera Zvonareva in the Australian Open quarterfinals. (photos: Getty Images)

Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka and Marion Bartoli pulled out of the Medibank International Sydney because of injury and illness.

Russian world No.7 Zvonareva withdrew from her first-round match against Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues after suffering a bout of gastroenteritis.

Belorussian world No.14 Azarenka, who won her maiden WTA title last week in Brisbane, pulled out because of a mystery virus.

Bartoli, the world No.17 from France and the last week's finalist at the Brisbane International, quit her match against British qualifier Melanie South after just two games because of a calf injury. (source: Reuters, photos: Getty Images via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)