The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Clijsters storms into semifinals

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Clijsters storms into semifinals

SYDNEY: Kim Clijsters stormed into the semifinals of the Sydney International with a demolition of Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday.

The Belgian world No.3 reaffirmed her status as favourite for next week's Australian Open with five service breaks on the way to a 6-3, 6-2 win over the seventh-seeded Azarenka in 85 minutes.

Clijsters will face Alisa Kleybanova on Thursday after the unseeded Russian overcame Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the night's final match. China's Li Na will take on Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski in the other semifinals, after Jovanovski beat Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-1 in their quarterfinal.

With no Serena Williams in Melbourne and the patchy early season form of the two top-ranked women, Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva, Clijsters was in devastating form.

Del Potro falters

In the men's section, Former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro's comeback from injury faltered, however, when his lack of match practice was exposed in the men's second round.

The 22-year-old Argentine declared himself free of pain when he won his first match in a year in three sets on Monday but he was well beaten 6-2, 7-5 by Germany's Florian Mayer.

Hewitt feeling fresh

Meanwhile, Lleyton Hewitt said he was feeling fresh ahead of his 15th Australian Open after a rain-interrupted 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win over Mikhail Youzhny at the Kooyong Classic on Wednesday.

Ferrer in last eight

At Auckland, David Ferrer will face fellow former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber in the Auckland Open quarterfinals on Thursday after both survived tough second round matches on Wednesday.

Ferrer, the 2007 champion and current world No. 7, needed almost 2-1/2 hours to beat rising German Tobias Kamke 3-6, 7-6(1) 6-4, while Kohlschreiber was also forced to three sets before he prevailed 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 over Spain's Marcel Gronollers.

The results: At Sydney (Sydney International): Women: Quarterfinals: Li Na bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3; Bojana Jovanovski bt Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-1; Kim Clijsters bt Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-2; Alisa Kleybanova bt Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Men: Second round: Sergiy Stakhovsky bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4; Viktor Troicki bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-3; Ernests Gulbis bt Igor Andreev 2-6, 6-4, 6-3; Gilles Simon bt Frederico Gil 6-1, 6-3; Potito Starace bt Lukasz Kubot 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3; Florian Mayer bt Juan Martin del Potro 6-2, 7-5; Richard Gasquet bt Andreas Seppi 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; Alexandr Dolgopolov bt Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-3. First round: Dolgopolov bt Bernard Tomic 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-2; Simon bt Lu Yen-hsun 6-0, 6-3; Gasquet bt Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-3.

At Melbourne (Kooyong Classic): First round: Gael Monfils bt Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4; Lleyton Hewitt bt Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 4-6, 6-4; Nikolay Davydenko bt Tomas Berdych 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

At Auckland (Auckland Open): Second round: John Isner bt Robin Haase 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5; Adrian Mannarino bt Arnaud Clement 7-5, 6-4; Santiago Giraldo bt Albert Montanes 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; David Nalbandian bt Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-2; David Ferrer bt Tobias Kamke 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-4; Philipp Kohlschreiber bt Marcel Granollers 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; Thomaz Bellucci bt Tommy Robredo 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Nicolas Almagro bt Victor Hanescu 6-4, 7-6(3) . — Agencies

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