Clijsters Charges into Hasselt Semifinals
October 28, 2005
Clijsters Charges into Hasselt Semifinals
HASSELT, Belgium - Kim Clijsters continued to thrill her nation's crowd at the
2005 Gaz de France Stars in Hasselt on Friday, charging into the semifinals
at the Tier III Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event with a routine straight set
quarterfinal victory. She will be joined in the final four by fellow seeds
Francesca Schiavone and Dinara Safina, as well as unseeded Dutch teenager
Michaella Krajicek.
Clijsters, ranked No.2 in the world and the top seed in Hasselt, cruised past
hard-hitting German baseliner Julia Schruff 62 63 in the feature evening
quarterfinal.
"Julia played well," Clijsters said after the victory. "She fought hard and
ran a lot of balls down. I had some problems on serve in the second set and
will look to improve that as the tournament goes on."
Clijsters moves into her 10th Tour semifinal of the season. She has been
virtually unstoppable this year after reaching that stage, falling just once
in nine attempts (to Svetlana Kuznetsova at Warsaw). Even more impressive is
that the Belgian has maintained a perfect 8-0 record in Tour finals. On
Saturday, Clijsters will have a chance to put to rest some negative memories
from last year's Hasselt semis, where she was forced to retire midway through
the second set against Elena Bovina after re-aggravating her left wrist injury,
an unfortunate incident that would prevent her from returning to the Tour for
over four months.
Schiavone, the No.3 seed this week, had few problems in her quarterfinal match,
dismissing big-serving Australian Samantha Stosur 63 62. Schiavone has been one
of the most dangerous players on the Tour since the US Open, winning 16 of 21
matches and falling only to the eventual champion at all five events she has
contested (losing to Lindsay Davenport at Bali, Filderstadt and Zurich, to
Clijsters at Luxembourg and to Mary Pierce at Moscow). Additionally, she has
notched three Top 10 victories in that time, defeating Amelie Mauresmo, Elena
Dementieva and Nadia Petrova.
Safina, the No.4 seed, overcame a slow start to defeat No.8 seed Katarina
Srebotnik of Slovenia 46 62 76(9). Safina has had a breakthrough season,
winning her third and fourth career Tour singles titles at Paris [Indoors]
and Prague, and recently making her Top 20 debut after an impressive week in
Moscow, where she stunned then-No.1 Maria Sharapova en route to her
career-first Tier I semifinal appearance.
Krajicek reached the semifinals after notching her biggest career victory,
ousting No.2 seed Nathalie Dechy 64 63. Krajicek has been on fire since
returning from a three-month knee injury lay-off in September, winning 11 of
12 matches in qualifying at Luxembourg, capturing her career-first Tour
singles title at Tashkent and reaching the semis here. With her victory over
the 13th-ranked Dechy, she is now 1-1 lifetime against Top 15 players, having
fallen to then-No.14 Patty Schnyder 36 63 64 in the second round of the 2005
Australian Open.
On Saturday, Clijsters will face Safina while Schiavone will battle Krajicek.
Clijsters is 4-0 lifetime against Safina, dropping a total of just 17 games
in four straight set victories. Schiavone and Krajicek will be facing each
other for the first time.
The Gaz de France Stars is currently in its second year after making its
debut on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in 2004. Dementieva claimed the inaugural
Hasselt trophy, defeating fellow Russian Bovina 06 60 64 in the final.
The winner this year will earn $27,000, while the runner-up takes home $14,500.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 218.167.36.2
NED-BEL-LUX 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
