SYDNEY – Kim Clijsters stormed into the semi-finals of the Sydney International with a straight sets demolition of Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday. The Belgian world number three 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-seed from Belarus 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 semi, after Jovanovski beat Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-1 in their quarter-final.
Li was the first player into the semi-finals after a gruelling dogfight with Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 11th-ranked Li wore down the two-time Grand Slam champion, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in almost two and a half hours on a warm day to book her spot in the last four of the tournament. Li will be bidding to go one better in Sydney than her losing semi-final appearance to Clijsters in the 2007 tournament.
QUERREY EXITS EARLY: American Sam Querrey completed a clean-out of top seeds in the Sydney International when he was ousted in his opening match of the tournament on Wednesday. Querrey followed women’s world number Caroline Wozniacki in a quick exit from the Australian Open main lead-up tournament when he was whipped 6-4, 6-3 by Ukraine’s 49th-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round. Organisers said it was the first time both top seeds had been knocked out in their first matches at the Sydney International since Jennifer Capriati and Sebastien Grosjean in 2002. Elsewhere, former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, searching for more court time in his recovery from wrist surgery, found German Florian Mayer too difficult an opponent so early in his comeback. Del Potro found backing up after Monday’s 3hr 20min opening win over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez too much and he went out to the 37th-ranked Mayer, 6-2, 7-5 in 74 minutes. Mayer, who will now play Italian Potito Starace in Thursday’s quarter-finals, was delighted with his form. Last year’s beaten finalist Richard Gasquet lined up a quarter-final with Serbian fourth seed Viktor Troicki after coming from a set down to oust Italian Andreas Seppi 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Troicki was too strong for Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-2, 6-3. Latvian third seed Ernests Gulbis overcame early resistance before extinguishing Russian Igor Andreev 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will next play Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine. Stakhovsky knocked out the tournament seventh seed Guillermo GarciaL-opez of Spain, 6-3, 6-4.
