Serbian Ana Ivanovic reaches second straight semifinal

Ana Ivanovic is practicing quality control on court again.
Playing what she called one of her best matches in recent months, the top-seeded Serbian saved seven of nine break points to slip past seventh-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-4, and advance to the semifinals of the Generali Ladies Linz.
Both players contributed to a final-like quality of the match, which remained in the balance until the final ball. The seventh-seeded Pennetta was, however, troubled by a serve that produced seven double faults, while Ivanovic used her strong forehand to give her an edge.

The top-seeded Ivanovic will take on No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the Linz semifinals. Radwanska advanced with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova.

The third known semifinalist is Vera Zvonareva, seeded second, who defeated seed No.8 Alize Cornet 7-5 6-1. The win earned Zvonareva the final place in the eight-player field for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.
Venus Williams Qualifies
Venus Williams and Vera Zvonareva clinched the last two berths in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships. Williams joins her sister Serena in the tournament for the top eight women in singles and the top four doubles teams
Venus Williams will be making her third appearance at the event, having reached the semifinals in her first two appearances, in 1999 and 2002. Zvonareva will be making her second appearance, having fallen in the round robin stage in 2004.

The final qualifiers join an acclaimed list of players competing at this season’s Championships, held for the first time in Doha. Previous qualifiers are world No.1 Jelena Jankovic, Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic, US Open champion Serena Williams, new world No.2 Dinara Safina, Olympic singles gold medalist Elena Dementieva and former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.