Friday, August 21, 2009

Dementieva and Williams advance to Toronto semifinals

The first set played by Elena Dementieva and Sam Stosur in today's Rogers Cup quarterfinals contained plenty of exciting rallies, and plenty of breaks of serve. Dementieva was broken when she served for that set at 5-4, and that was the fourth consecutive break. There were more to come: She broke Stosur right back--at love, no less, when Stosur double-faulted on the final point. Then Stosur broke Dementieva when she served for the set a second time, which forced a tiebreak, which Stosur dominated.

The next set might as well have been played at a different tournament. Stosur's game, especially her serve, collapsed, and in no time, Dementieva had taken the set 6-1. Stosur got back into the mix in the third set, but she still made too many errors, and Dementieva won it, 6-3. Stosur double-faulted a total of nine times, which--by recent standards--isn't so terrible, but it hurt her.

In the second quarterfinal match, the bright run of Lucie Safarova ended when a near-perfect Serena Williams (who has qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships) was just too good at everything she did, effectively shutting Safarova out of the match. In under an hour, Williams won the match, 6-2, 6-3, losing a total of five points on her serve.

Dementieva and Williams will compete against each other in the semifinals.

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