Ana Ivanovic has reached her third semifinal of the year with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 victory over world No.114 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati.

The 22-year-old Ivanovic didn’t face a break point in the quarterfinal that lasted 57 minutes. Ivanovic was pressurizing Amanmuradova’s serve, who is known for being a good server. Ivanovic’s aggressive returns denied the Uzbekistani all her points on the second serve in the first set.

Ivanovic is partly crediting her recent good results to old friend Marija Lojanica, who joined Ivanovic's staff as a physical fitness coach after Wimbledon. Lojanica is Ivanovic’s first female coach and Ivanovic said how nice it is to have a woman as a coach because they hang out after training and even the routine itself is more fun.

"It's been also a lot fun working out with a girl and just having fun and throwing in a dance or whatever. You know, just actually enjoying it," said the 2008 French Open champion. "She's a girl, so we can go shopping together, watch movies, do our nails. It just keeps your mind off tennis."

Marija Lojanica works with the Serbian Fed Cup team and the two have known each other since Ana was 13.

"In the past I was with male coaches, and you do a job and go back to the room. I really like to read and it was sort of relaxing," Ivanovic added.

"But then after all, you find you have spent all day in a room, and it gets kind of depressing. So it's good to go out and just do a fun girly stuff." (sources: Ana Ivanovic's official website, Reuters; photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic has continued her Cincinnati run by defeating Elena Vesnina in the third round. The Serb lost only three games to beat the Russian 6-0 6-3 in 64 minutes.

Ivanovic raced to a 4-0 lead in just 15 minutes, winning every point on Vesnina’s second serve. In that first set Ivanovic didn’t face a single break point, while in the second set the former world No.1 faced three and fought off all of them.

Ivanovic’s opponent in the quarterfinals will not be compatriot and top seed Jelena Jankovic, but rather world No.114 Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan who upset Jankovic 7-6(3) 6-4.

In all the matches that have finished by now on Thursday, lower seeds defeated higher seeds. No.11 Flavia Pennetta beat No.6 Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-3, No.12 Yanina Wickmayer defeated No.8 Li Na 2-6 6-2 7-6(4), and No.16 Marion Bartoli saw off No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-1. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Elena Dementieva lost in the second round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open to fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Kim Clijsters avenged her 2009 Cincinnati loss to Dinara Safina and progressed to the third round. Both Dementieva and Clijsters were playing their opening matches.

The third-seeded Dementeiva claimed to have been affected by the humid weather in the days prior to Wednesday’s rain and simply couldn’t get into the game. Pavlyuchenkova, titlist at the Istanbul Cup last week, won 6-1 6-3 and will next play seed No.13 Shahar Peer.

In a battle of two former world No.1s, fourth seed Kim Clijsters beat Dinara Safina 7-5 6-2. Clijsters started her last year’s return to professional tennis at this very tournament and, interestingly, Safina was the one who ended her Cincinnati campaign in the quarterfinals, with quite a similar score: 6-2 7-5.

Maria Sharapova cruised past Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-1 in the second round, while Vera Zvonareva survived the encounter with Maria Kirilenko, eventually winning 7-5 2-6 7-6(2). Second seed Caroline Wozniacki had no trouble defeating Sybille Bammer 6-0 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.62 Ana Ivanovic followed up her first round upset of Victoria Azarenka with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Yaroslava Shvedova at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati. It’s Ivanovic’s first back-to-back win since the tournament in Rome in May when she reached the semifinals.

Ivanovic’s next opponent will be world No.49 Elena Vesnina, who advanced by upsetting fifth seed and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-4. If Ivanovic manages to overcome Vesnina, she could potentially face top seed and fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals.

Another breaking piece of news about Ivanovic is that she has declined a wild card into the main draw of the Rogers Cup. The former champion had her initial request turned down several weeks ago and was supposed to play qualifying. Tournament director Eugene Lapierre offered Ivanovic a wildcard on Tuesday but the Serb didn’t want to accept it, partly because it doesn’t fit her schedule any more and partly because she was offended by the director’s comments.

I would have loved to have played in Montreal, but I was quite hurt by the comments of Mr Lapierre that I was shown in The Montreal Gazette recently.

I don’t think his comments were necessary, and they contradicted everything he had told my management previously: that I was not getting a wild card because I am not Canadian.

The fact that my original request was turned down isn’t really an issue: I would have been happy to play qualifying, but I felt that they kind of stepped over the line with this interview, making public our correspondence and even misrepresenting it. Unfortunately I don’t feel welcome at this tournament.

Anyway, I am playing New Haven in a week or so, and I am currently at my third straight event (Cincinnati). Even though I haven’t played many matches, the training and travel take their toll, and I think this is the right decision to make, for several reasons.

(photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova defeated San Diego champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 1-6 6-2 in the first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati.

Players had to deal with extreme heat and humidity, which even forced Nadia Petrova to retire from the tournament, while Elena Vesnina claimed to have experienced one of the hottest days of her life. However, it was not the weather conditions that largely affected Kuznetsova’s performance, but rather the fact that she had a sore leg and was coming off just winning the Mercury Insurance Open over the weekend and didn’t have time to rest.

"It's definitely tough to have a night flight then come and play the day after a final, but it's just bad luck, I cannot change it," said the world No.14 Kuznetsova. "I just need to get my ranking higher and then I can get a bye. But I also have to give a lot of credit to Maria. She played really well in the third."

Sharapova commited much more unforced errors, 39 to Kuznetsova's 17, but also hit more winners, 31 to Kuznetsova's 11.

Fashion note: Masha is wearing a Nike Women's Maria Sharapova Lawn Top and Skort. So that my perception of colors doesn’t interfere, Tennis Warehouse states the outfit is filament green with armory (and there is also a white with anthracite version). (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, ESPN; photo: © Neal Trousdale)