Thursday, June 18, 2009

Razzano defeats defending champion Radwanska

EASTBOURNE, England (AP) -Virginie Razzano upset defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6 (5), 7-5 on Thursday to reach the semifinals of the Eastbourne Championships.

"It was a very close match, a tough match,'' Razzano said. "She's a great player and you need to play your best to beat her. I won because I was aggressive against her and was mentally strong.''

Marion Bartoli defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Razzano.


Sixth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki swept past Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2, the only remaining seed in the women's draw.

Wozniacki will face Aleksandra Wozniak, who took just 45 minutes to oust former-finalist Vera Dushevina 6-1, 6-0.

In the men's draw, fourth-seeded Fabrice Santoro advanced when Ivan Ljubicic retired with a left ankle injury

The Frenchman had lost the first set 6-3 and was leading the second set 4-2 when Ljubicic lost his footing and slid into the net. After crying out in pain he was attended to by Santoro, who called for ice, but was unable to continue.

Ljubicic later attended hospital for tests and will make a decision later about playing next week at Wimbledon.

Santoro now plays qualifier Frank Dancevic, who outlasted Leonardo Mayer 6-7, 6-4, 7-5.

The second semifinal will be between second-seeded Dmitry Tursunov and eighth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Tursunov beat Denis Istomin 7-6, 6-4, and Garcia-Lopez defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3




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