Playing in her first Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, Serena Williams is into the semifinals in her first Bank of the West Classic at Stanford appearance. Serena, a 63 61 quarterfinal winner over Patty Schnyder, will meet Canadian No. 1 Aleksandra Wozniak, who reached her biggest career semifinal with a 62 57 64 victory over Samantha Stosur.
In the second semifinal, No. 6 seed Marion Bartoli challenges unseeded Ai Sugiyama. Bartoli pulled off the biggest upset of the week so far in the feature night match on Friday, beating No.2 seed Anna Chakvetadze, 63 64. Sugiyama won an all-unseeded battle with Dominika Cibulkova, 67(4) 76(5) 53, retired.
At 33, Ai Sugiyama is the oldest player in this year’s singles main draw.
With the withdrawal of Lindsay Davenport and the defeat of defending champion Anna Chakvetadze, Sugiyama is the only former Bank of the West singles finalist left in the draw. No former champions remain but Sugiyama was a runner-up in 1995.
Both No.1 seed Serena Williams and qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak, who will face off in the first semifinal, are making their Bank of West Classic debuts this year.
Qualifier Wozniak is making her career-first Tier II semifinal appearance. This is her best singles result on Tour this year. She is aiming to reach her second career singles final after a runner-up finish at 2000 Fes.
Wozniak is the first qualifier to reach the final four at this event since 2003, when qualifier Maria Vento-Kabchi lost in the semifinals to Jennifer Capriati 64 64. (WTA)
Williams has reached the semifinals or better at five of nine events she has contested this year. She has a perfect 4-0 record in semifinals this year, winning titles at Bangalore, Miami and Charleston and finishing runner-up at Wimbledon.
Williams is the only semifinalist to hold a 2008 singles title.
Marion Bartoli has notched her best result at the Bank of the West Classic. Her previous-best results at this event were four second-round finishes in five appearances.
Bartoli is aiming for her first Tour singles final this year. She will enter Saturday’s semi with a 0-2 record in semifinals this year.
Sugiyama has reached first singles semifinal of this year.
Sugiyama holds a perfect 5-0 record against Bartoli. Their last meeting was at 2006 Zurich. Williams and Wozniak will face off for the first time.
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