CHARLESTON, SC, USA - Eight became four at the Family Circle Cup on Friday, as the quarterfinals took to the green clay courts of the Family Circle Tennis Center. Russia's Elena Dementieva was among the winners.
Dementieva, the No.1 seed and heavy tournament favorite after No.2, No.3 and No.4 were all ousted on Thursday, ground out the first set against Dominika Cibulkova in the first match of the day before the No.7-seeded Slovak succumbed to a left adductor injury early on in the second set, handing Dementieva a 64 10 retirement victory.
"I feel sorry she couldn't finish the match," the world No.3 said. "We played a few times before and it was always interesting so hopefully next time we'll finish. I'm going to practice again now because we didn't play long and there were things I wasn't too happy about in my game."
Next up for Dementieva will be the next-highest seeded player remaining in the tournament, No.5 seed Caroline Wozniacki, who crushed No.13 seed Virginie Razzano in the second match of the afternoon session, 62 60.
"I felt really good out there. I tried to stay aggressive the whole time because I knew if I was defensive she'd step in and kill the ball," Wozniacki said. "Elena's a great player and a great fighter. Every time we play, we play for hours. It's going to be a tough match tomorrow. I need to be 100% to have a chance to beat her."
Dementieva won her first two meetings with Wozniacki, in straight sets at the Olympics last summer and in a third set tie-break in the final of Luxembourg last fall; in their third and most recent match the Dane finally struck gold, beating the Russian in Miami a few weeks ago, 75 64. This will be their first duel on clay.
Doing battle in the other semifinal will be No.6 seed Marion Bartoli and No.16 seed Sabine Lisicki, after both recorded routine wins Friday. Lisicki was the first to advance, beating unseeded Elena Vesnina, 64 60; Bartoli beat another unseeded player, Melinda Czink, at night by almost the same score, 64 61.
"This is my biggest tournament so far, or the biggest tournament I've been in the semis of," said Lisicki, who has been further once before - she was a runner-up at Tashkent last fall to Sorana Cirstea. "I'm really happy with my performance this week. And I beat Venus Williams, so it's just a great tournament for me."
Bartoli and Lisicki have met once before, on the lawns of Wimbledon last year, with the Frenchwoman winning in straight sets, 62 64.
"I had the advantage because we played on Centre Court," Bartoli said of the pair's only previous meeting. "With my experience at Wimbledon it was a lot easier to play her there, so I beat her quite easily. But she beat Venus here and she's in the semifinals, so it's going to be very difficult. If I'm playing the same way as I played tonight, I think it's going to be a great match."
