Schiavone will play Kaia Kanepi in the semi-finals, who continued her rich vein of form with a 6-1 7-6 victory over Andrea Petkovic. Kanepi got a little tight towards the end of the second set wasting several leads, but she managed to pull the win through in two sets. She is striking the ball very cleanly and with real ferocity at the moment. I also liked the passion she showed at the end of the match, which I haven't seen much from Kaia in previous matches. The other semi-final will see Kim Clijsters take on Daniela Hantuchova. Hantuchova benefited from Serena's withdrawal and Clijsters had a relatively routine 6-3 6-2 victory over Stosur's conqueror, Iveta Benesova.
In Auckland, the number one seed Sabine Lisicki retired from her match with Angelique Kerber down 4-6 3-4 due to an abdominal strain. Kerber will now play Flavia Pennetta in a repeat of the US Open quarter-final from 2011. Pennetta will be hoping for revenge and I expect her to win; she has started the season in fine form not dropping a set on her way to the semi-finals. The other semi-final will be contested between Svetlana Kuznetsova and Zheng Jie. Kuznetsova continued to impress with a straight sets victory over Sara Errani, meanwhile Zheng's good start to 2012 gathered pace as she impressively took out Lucie Hradecka. Unfortunately I cannot see her posing much of a threat to a resurgent Kuznetsova. As you will have gathered I am a fan of Zheng Jie's and you can see a funny video from her in Auckland below!
The qualifying draw for Sydney has already been released and looks rather epic! The cut-off point for the main draw is the number 25 player in the world, Lucie Safarova, which shows the immense quality of this draw! It is likely to be out on Saturday so my preview of the draw should hopefully be out before the main draw kicks off :-)
Semi-final Predictions
WTA Brisbane:
Clijsters to beat Hantuchova in 2 sets
Kanepi to beat Schiavone in 3 sets
WTA Auckland:
Pennetta to beat Kerber in 2 sets
Kuznetsova to beat Zheng in 2 sets
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