Venus sets up Kvitova date

Venus sets up Kvitova date Tokyo, Sept. 26: Former world number one Venus Williams turned back the clock with some brutal hitting to overcome Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 on Thursday and reach the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open. Williams will face the 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the last four after the seventh-seeded Czech thrashed Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-1. Earlier, fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki, the 2010 Tokyo winner, advanced to the semi-finals with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Czech Lucie Safarova. The Dane will meet Germany’s Angelique Kerber in Friday’s semi-finals following the fifth seed’s 6-4, 6-4 defeat of second-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska. Watched from the Royal box by five-times Pan Pacific champion Martina Hingis, Williams showed flashes of the form that swept her to five Wimbledon titles between 2000 and 2008 as she continued her purple patch in Tokyo.

Raonic battles past Matosevic Milos Raonic of Canada took only one of 16 break chances and still overcame Marinko Matosevic of Australia 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 to open his account in the Thailand Open on Thursday. Gilles Simon of France also reached the quarterfinals when he defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 7-5. Also, Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan ousted eighth-seeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 with fifth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia also going through. Meanwhile, world no. 26 Jurgen Melzer entered the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Germany’s Mischa Zverev 7-5, 6-4 at the Putra Stadium on Thursday. His victory sets up a clash with Federico Delbonis on Friday after the Argentinian reached the final eight by upsetting seventh-seeded Canadian Vasek Posposil 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/1) on Wednesday. Joining Melzer are Joao Sousa of Portugal and fifth seed Julien Benneteau of France. Sousa came back from a set down to defeat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, while fifth seed Benneteau outplayed Spain’s Pablo Andujar 7-6 (10/8), 6-2.

Paes in semis; Som in last 8 Leander Paes and his Italian partner Daniele Bracciali stormed into the semi-finals of the doubles event at Thailand after defeating Colombian pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 10-8. Meanwhile, in the Malaysia Open, Somdev Devvarman and his South African partner Rik De Voest scored a 3-6, 6-4, 10-7 upset win over second seeds Nenan Zimonjic of Serbia and Julien Benneteau of Switzerland in the quarterfinals.