Venus Williams eased past Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-3 and reached the semifinals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. Venus is now 4-0 against Stosur and has maintained the pattern of never losing more than four games in a set against the Australian.

Venus’s opponent in the semifinals will be Shahar Peer, the Israeli who will bear the burden of being the one who defeated No.13 seed Li Na at the Madrid Open. Why am I saying this? Because Li is donating all her Madrid money to earthquake-hit Yushu County in northwest China. Li will help the county with $57,500, and had the Chinese reached the semis, the amount would have been more than twice as high.

Lucie Safarova, coming off quarterfinals in Stuttgart and Rome, continued her fine form and upset No.16 seed Nadia Petrova 6-1 1-6 6-4 in Madrid quarters. Next for Safarova will be Aravane Rezai, the winner over seventh seed Jelena Jankovic, 7-5 6-4. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.8 Samantha Stosur has won 21 of her last 24 matches, and her latest victory came against Patty Schnyder in the third round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Schynder was a semifinalist at the Premier-level tournament last year and has more wins on clay than any other active player, but the eighth-seeded Stosur defeated the Swiss 7-6(3) 6-2 and is marching towards the Top 5 in the rankings (she is projected to reach a career-high of No.7 next week).

Here’s what Stosur says about her continued good results:

I've been playing well since Indian Wells. That all started on hardcourt and it has been running onto the clay courts, too [Miami, Charleston, Stuttgart]. It's just one of those things. You win a number of matches in a row then you grow in confidence, and it doesn't matter what surface you're on.

Awaiting Stosur in the quarterfinals is fourth seed Venus Williams, whom Stosur has never defeated in three attempts. Actually, Stosur hasn’t won a set against Williams. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: sr_cranks)

Venus and Serena Williams both played their third-round matches at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Wednesday, but with different outcomes.

The fourth-seeded Venus lost the first set against seed No.15 Francesca Schiavone, but was dominant in the remainder of the match to win 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Serena, who barely survived her match against Vera Dusevina in the previous round, played her third-round right after older sister Venus and fell to No.16 seed Nadia Petrova 4-6 6-2 6-3. The world No.1 Serena was playing only her second tournament since winning the Australian Open in January.

Venus’ win is securing her to move one spot up in the rankings, from No.3 to No.2, which means that the Williams sisters will occupy the Top 2 spots for the 46th week in their careers when the new rankings are released on Monday. Venus hasn’t been in the Top 2 since 2003. (photo: Emmett Anderson)

World number one Serena Williams played three sets to win her second match since coming out of long injury absence, but as always the American was able to step up when needed and defeated unseeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-2 3-6 6-0 in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

The top-seeded Williams won the first set with a five-game streak, but quickly found herself trailing the 49th-ranked Petkovic 4-1 in the second set, before losing it 6-3. In the decider Williams regained her concentration and wrapped up the set to love.

Serena’s older sister Venus Williams, seeded fourth, played next and recorded a 6-3 6-4 victory over Shahar Peer of Israel in the third round, so the Williamses are now on course to meet in the semifinals.

Serena’s opponent in the quarters will be Maria Kirilenko, who followed up her upset of fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova with a 4-6 6-1 6-1 win over Dominika Cibulkova. Venus’ next opponent will be seventh seed Jelena Jankovic, who showed good form in the 6-2 6-0 defeat of No.11 seed Yanina Wickmayer in the third round. (photo: Emmett Anderson)

The 1999 Rome champion Venus Williams cruised to the third round of this year’s tournament with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Patty Schnyder. The fourth-ranked Williams, who had a bye in the first round, was playing her first match since a decisive loss to Kim Clijsters in the Sony Ericsson Open final in the beginning of March. The reason for Williams’ layoff was a knee problem, but the time out didn’t prevent the American from extending her career record against Schynder to 10-0.

Defending champion Dinara Safina, seeded third, is still under the radar because of her back injury and the fact that her second-round match in Rome was only her third since January. The Russian world No.3 came back from 4-0 down to level to 4-4 in the first set against Romanian world No.43 Alexandra Dulgheru, before quickly losing the initiative and the set. Safina managed to win the topsy-turvy second set in the tiebreak, before crushing in the decider. Final score: 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1.

I would like to mention one more result: seed No.7 Jelena Jankovic defeated good friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 3-6 6-1 in the second round. (photos: sr_cranks)