Los Angeles semifinalists set: Sharapova, Pennetta, Stosur, Cirstea
The quarterfinals of the LA Women’s Tennis Championships are over and we have our semifinalists: Maria Sharapova will play Flavia Pennetta, and Samantha Stosur will face Sorana Cirstea.
Maria Sharapova claimed a straight-set win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, but it was far from easy – the Russian broke Radwanska only once in the first set, in the 18-point third game, and was 3-5 down in the second set. The final score was 6-4 7-5.
Seed No.10 Flavia Pennetta defeated second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2, and thus earned her tenth Top 10 win. Pennetta is now on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Palermo prior to playing the LA tournament.
Sharapova and Penneta will meet in the semis. They have played each other two times so far, but their last encounter was over three years ago.
No.13 seed Samantha Stosur rallied from 6-4 3-1 down to beat No.14 seed Zheng Jie 4-6 6-3 6-4, the winner over world No.1 Dinara Safina in the third round. Stosur will play Soraca Cirstea in the semis, after the Romanian won a marathon with No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6(4) 1-6 7-5.
Stosur easily won the only meeting with Cirstea, which was in this year's French Open quarterfinals. (photos courtesy of Stephane Martinache and Bobby)
Jelena Jankovic was not the only 
The 18-year-old Wozniacki picked up her third title of the year, after Stockholm and New Haven, with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 victory over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi at the Tier III event in Tokyo. The top-seeded Wozniacki earned $28,000 defeating Kanepi, who is yet to win her first career title.
