Mauresmo slices and volleys her way to New Haven semifinal

The match wasn't pretty, but Amelie Mauresmo's tennis was often beautiful in her Pilot Pen quarterfinal match against top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova tonight. Sometimes looking like the great Mauresmo of 2006, the 8th-seeded Frenchwoman did everything she could think of--slice, serve and volley, increase topspin--to stay in the contest with French Open champion Kuznetsova. She also served well, which helped her quite a bit.

The first set was tight, and Mauresmo--always a good bet in tiebreaks--won it 11-9 in a tiebreak, saving five set points along the way. In the second set, she looked sluggish, and Kuznetsova won rather easily, 6-2. But in the third, all of Mauresmo's energy and finesse returned, as Kuznetsova made more and more errors. Serving at 5-3 for the match, Mauresmo held at love, but only after delivering one more superb backhand down the line.

Both players made plenty of unforced errors, and Mauresmo hit only half the number of winners her opponent hit. Despite the messiness of much of the mactch, however, there were some highly entertaining rallies, especially with Mauresmo spending so much time at the net.

In the semifinals, Mauresmo will play Elena Vesnina, who defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 7-5. The other semifinal match will be played between 3rd seed Flavia Pennetta and 2nd seed Caroline Wozniacki. Pennetta defeated Magdelena Rybarikova 6-2, 6-2, and Wozniacki defeated Virginie Razzano 6-4, 6-3.

In doubles, Iveta Benesova and Lucie Hradecka defeated Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko when Kateryna had to retire because of a thigh strain.