Williams sisters act in Bangalore Open semis, Jankovic ousted

It would have been treat to watch Williams sisters in the summit clash of the 2008 Bangalore open. The tennis lovers of Bangalore would have got paramount excitement but destiny had something else on the cards as they met in the semis of the WTA $600,000 tournament after both registered easy victories in their respective quarter-finals on Friday.

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Venus Williams defeated Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 6-3, while Serena Williams outplayed Anastasia Rodionova 6-1, 6-4. Unseeded Yan Zi of China also shown the door to top-seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the semis of the tournament.

The Williams sisters will fight it out against each other almost after two years time as they last played each other in the 2005 U.S. Open in which Venus emerged victor. Second-seeded Venus and third-seeded Serena will now play in the semi-finals on Saturday.

In the other semis, fourth-seed Patty Schnyder will meet unseeded Yan Zi of China. Schnyder resisted the strong challenge before edging past Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) in the quarters.

World No. 4 Jankovic lost her quarterfinal match in two hours time as she struggled with her serve while Yan took the complete control of the match. Yan claimed the first set by breaking Jankovic’s serve in the eighth game and took a 4-0 lead in the deciding set.

"I was struggling with injuries first with my serve in the first set and then my shoulder started giving me trouble after the end of second set," Jankovic said after the match.

RESULTS

Singles (quarterfinals): 4-Patty Schnyder (Sui) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1); 2-Venus Williams (USA) bt 7-Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 6-4, 6-3; 3-Serena Williams bt Anastasia Rodionova (Rus) 6-1, 6-4; Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt Zi Yan (Chn) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Doubles (semifinals): 1-Yung Jan Chan & Chia Jung Chuang (Tpe) bt Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Blr) & Monica Niculescu (Rou) 6-1, 7-5.