Kim Clijsters progresses to semi-finals

[DexteR]

World No. 3 Kim Clijsters booked her place in the semi-finals of the Sydney International after a 6-3 6-2 victory over seventh seed Victoria Azarenka.

The Belgian continued her good form ahead of next week's Australian Open with a hard fought triumph against the 21-year-old Belarussian, which looked like being more straightforward when she rushed into a 4-0 opening set lead. But Azarenka, the world No. 10, soon gained her composure and had brought the scoreline back to 5-3 before Clijsters finally managed to secure the set.

The second set began in similar fashion, with Clijsters engineering an early break of service and then saving four break points on her own serve to open up a 3-1 advantage. From there it was a matter of seeing the game through, which she did comfortably, although Azarenka will rue only managing to convert two of the 14 break point opportunities she had during the match.

Clijsters was simply too consistent for her opponent in a high quality encounter, but the 27-year-old refused to put pressure on herself with the first grand slam event of the year just around the corner.

"I don't think about it like that at all, it's something that is kind of put on you from the outside and it doesn't change anything in my mind," Clijsters said. "I am very happy with the preparation that I've had and have worked hard in the off-season and that's the only thing I can do from my side.

"I think the score definitely sounds a lot easier than it was. Even when I was up 3-0 in that first set it was close, I think we both started at a pretty high level - I think I played the important points a little bit better."

Clijsters will face Alisa Kleybanova in one of the two semi-finals, after the Russian outlasted Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in a three-set encounter 6-3 5-7 6-2. Cibulkova had dumped world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki out of the competition in the second round on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the quarter-finals, last year's Australian Open semi-finalist Li Na edged past Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6 7-6(4) 6-3 in a draining contest, while unseeded Serbian Bojana Jovanovski joined her in the other semi-final as she saw off the challenge of Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-4 6-1.

In the WTA Tour's other event, the Hobart International, Great Britain's Elena Baltacha was due to finish her second round match against Roberta Vinci, which was suspended on Tuesday due to rain with the score 6-3 in the Italian's favour. However, rain once again delayed the match's completion.

[sheem]

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[DexteR]

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[sheem]

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