Local hope Peng Shuai grabbed the final berth of the last four at the China Open WTA tournament after rallying past third-seeded Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals at the Beijing Tennis Centre here on Friday.
Her reward will be a Saturday semifinal tie against Hungarian sixth seed Agnes Szavay, who produced an impressive display of baseline hitting to sweep past lucky loser Emilia Salerni from Argentina 6-2, 6-4.
The other semifinal will see Lindsay Davenport versus second-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic.
Davenport was hard tested in the opening set before overcoming Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 while Jankovic overcame some sloppy moments in the second set to get the better of Japanese Akiko Morigami 6-3, 7-5.
Dementieva, fourth seeded here and world number 15, did herself no favors in the slump, giving the American veteran too many free points with her notoriously dodgy serve by striking 12 double faults.
"I had many opportunities in the first set especially when I was leading 6-5. I really felt disappointed when I lost the first set in such a close result. I felt that I was losing the game and I didn't play as well as in the first set," the 26-year-old Russian said.
"I was watching Lindsay's matches this week. I'm not surprised that she is in good shape. She has good preparation to come here. She is one of the toughest players I've ever played against."
Davenport, the three-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one, proved Dementieva's argument by battling through the first set even dropping her own serve three times.
But once she put her game into high gear, it was all over for the Russian, who was broken six times during the one hour and 30 minutes match.
"She doesn't have the best serves but she returns very well. That's why it was tough to hold service games when you play against her," Davenport said. "At the end of the first set I just told myself to stay positive even though I was broken. She's a great player and I'm happy that I played well," said Davenport.
Davenport, who gave birth to her son Jagger in June, came out of retirement last week to win her 52nd career title in Bali and continued her unbeaten run at the Tier II China Open.
The former world number one now has emerged as a heavy favorite for the trophy as she keeps a 4-0 record against the highest-ranked Jankovic, with the latest straight set win coming from the Bali Open quarterfinals just a week ago.
Davenport has said she will assess her options after Beijing. Should she decide to come back to the WTA tour full-time, she would be likely to make her next appearance in Australia in January.
In the day's most absorbing match, The error-prone Mauresmo ran out of gas in the last two sets, slumping to the 21-year-old Peng 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two and a half hours.
After claiming the opening set with break in the ninth game, Mauresmo, the two-times Grand Slam winner suddenly lost her consistency in the remaining match partially thanks to the noisy home spectators on the stands.
At 4-4 after two exchanges of breaks in the second set, Peng started to show more battling qualities, holding serve in the ninth game while facing two break points and went on to take decisive break in the next game to pull back one set.
Inspired by a thunderous fans, Peng, also a semifinalist here last year, was in a class of her own in the final set, stretching Mauresmo all the way while the 28-year-old Frenchwoman was troubled with too many unforced errors, crashing at 6-2.
Despite the ranking of 49th in the world, Peng has been very dangerous in the past, notching three top 10 wins in her young career, all on hardcourt, before she came into the quarterfinal.
"I was disappointed to lose the match and fail to reach the semifinals. I had thought I could win by two sets but I was physically worn down at the end of the second set and in the third set, although I played pretty well in the opening set," said Mauresmo, who has not struck a ball since participating in France's 3-2 Fed Cup defeat to Italy in July because of an adductor strain.
The former world No.1 had bad fortunes as she has struggled for form and fitness this season, failing to make it beyond the quarterfinals in over half the tournaments she has competed in.
Source: Xinhua
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