Stunning Sharapova
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ByEurosport
Published 22/10/2004 at 16:34 GMT
Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, the winner of four titles this season, brushed aside former world number one Venus Williams 6-3 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Zurich Challenge on Friday to boost her chances of one of three remaining places at the se
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The 17-year-old frequently placed Williams on the back foot in a battle of past and present Wimbledon winners.
The world number seven was in almost constant control, combining fierce ground strokes and ferocious returns of serve to win in just 75 minutes.
It was her 11th victory in a row, following on from tournament triumphs in Seoul and Tokyo.
Sharapova, seeded fourth in Zurich, will now take on third seed Elena Dementieva in an all-Russian semi-final.
Dementieva advanced to the last four earlier on Friday with a 6-1 5-7 7-5 win over Japanese ninth seed Ai Sugiyama.
The Russian world number five had looked on course for a convincing victory after easing through the opening set in 22 minutes.
But just as in Thursday's second round match against compatriot Elena Bovina, Dementieva seemed to lose her concentration in a second set strewn with unforced errors.
With both women keeping close to the baselines, the third set was tightly contested.
Dementieva grabbed a decisive break in the penultimate game, however, to reach the Zurich semis for the first time in six attempts.
Against Sharapova, Dementieva will be looking to end something of a jinx when it comes to playing her compatriot.
The 22-year-old was a finalist at both the French and U.S. Opens this year, but was beaten on both occasions, by Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova respectively.
Dementieva has also lost to Russian opponents in three of her last five tournaments.
Tenth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland booked her place in the semi-finals in the first match of the evening session, with a 2-6 6-3 6-4 victory over Argentina Paola Suarez.
In the final match of the evening, world number 20, Alicia Molik of Australia defeated Nadia Petrova 6-3 6-1 and will meet Schnyder in Saturday's semi-final.
You can follow live scoring and comments of WTA Zurich semi-finals on Eurosport TV and eurosport.com/co.uk from 15:00cet on Saturday.
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