Fourth seed Serena Williams defeated eight seed Nicole Vaidisova 6-4 7-6(7) to advance to Moscow semifinals.

Vaidisova difficultly held her serve, especially in the first set when none of her serves went without at least one deuce. However, Williams made only one break despite having, as far as I remember, 9 break points! Vaidisova had one chance to break Serena in the sixth game of the first set, but the American impressively served three aces in a row. In the eighth game of the second set, Williams was broken and trailed 5-3, but she broke back and eventually there was a tiebreak. Vaidisova saved three match points in the tiebreaker before netting a forehand to lose the match.

In the semifinals Serena Williams will face top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, while Dinara Safina plays against Elena Dementieva.

Thirteenth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova beat Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2 7-6 (7-0) in the round two of the US Open.

I watched only the last part of the match, but I can say that Pennetta had her chances since her opponent was emotionally fragile at moments. What happened was that Vaidisova simply wasn’t able to finish the match when leading 6-5 in the second set. She wasted five match points and let Pennetta make a break. It left the Czech so frustrated and angry that she broke her racket. Pennetta evened the result to 6-6 in the second set, but was demolished in the tie-break by failing to score even one point. That was disappointing. I was hoping for the third set.

After all, the favorite was victorious and she will next play No.18 seed Shahar Peer of Israel. This should be a match worth watching.

World No.16 Nicole Vaidisova won’t participate at the August 13-19 Rogers Cup in Toronto, and even her appearance at the US Open is under question.

The best Czech tennis player has still not recovered from glandular fever which has been bothering her since Wimbledon (where she lost to Ana Ivanovic in the semi-finals, but only after having knocked out defending champion Amelie Mauresmo). Read more »

Nicole Vaidisova is known as a player who always carries many books in her tennis bag. That was the reason the Czech was chosen for Get Caught Reading, a nationwide public service campaign launched by the Association of American Publishers in 1999 to promote the joy of reading. Vaidisova is now spreading the literacy word by being photographed reading Mitch Albom's bestselling Tuesdays with Morrie.

Other celebrities that have also appeared in the campaign include Whoopi Goldberg, Alicia Keys, Queen Latifa, Robin Williams, NY Yankee Johnny Damon, The Miami Heat, etc. To see what their posters look like click here.

Amazing Ana Ivanovic came from a set down, and a break down in the third set by saving three match points, to finally overcome No. 14th seed Nicole Vaidisova 4-6 6-2 7-5. I’m speechless!

Both Ana and Nicole are young, but they demonstrated fantastic mental strength in this match; still, Ana proved to be a bit stronger when it came to fighting off match points.

Ana has improved a lot, and we can see a major step in her becoming a mature player, both in technique and in mind. Let’s not forget that Vaidisova has also had a magnificent performance at this year’s Wimbledon, especially in the previous round when she overcame defending champion Amelie Mauresmo.

Since Ivanovic and Vaidisova are rising stars, they will definitely meet many times in the future and there will be some great rivalry if their fast progress continues.

World No. 6 Ivanovic is now only one step away from reaching her second successive Grand Slam final. The teenager from Serbia will next face No. 23 seed Venus Williams who defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-4 to advance to the last four.