French Bartoli ousted in semis; Safina in final with Cibulkova

Dominika Cibulkova continued her dream run, and is entering only her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final, finishing runner-up in Amelia Island to Maria Sharapova in a tight two-setter this year.

Cibulkova faced Marion Bartoli for a spot in the final. It was a tough match, but in the end, it was Cibulkova who prevailed in a thrilling three-setter, 46 64 63.

"In the first set I was quite satisfied with my tournament; I just had yesterday's match on my mind and wasn't really focused on this match," Cibulkova said. "The rain delay after I lost the first set really helped me. I went to the locker room and talked to my coach. It wasn't easy to talk to him because he was really mad. I realized if I just played my game, I had a chance to win this match. Then in the second set I played like I should. In the third it was a very high level of tennis."

"Winning my first title is still very far. It's still one match," Cibulkova added. "I'm so excited about this, about my game, that I'm in the final of a Tier I for the first time. I will try to play my best tomorrow. And for sure I will be not satisfied with my week so far, like I was today in the beginning."

The other semifinal match featured No. 7 seed Dinara Safina and No. 11 seed Victoria Azarenka. It was one of the toughest matches Safina has played, but she eventually closed out the match with a 60 26 63 victory over the Belorussian.

"I knew it would be tougher in the second set because, she would try to play better after losing the first set," Safina said. "Me, I slowed down and let her get back into the match. I think I complicated it even more for myself. But I still turned the match around in the third set, and I'm really happy with that."

"As you can see, since the clay court season, she's playing amazing," Azarenka said. "I think she's playing like the No.1 player in the world."

Safina and Cubulkova will be playing eachother for the first time. It should be a tough match, since both players worked hard to get three set victories.

"She's a very tough opponent - she proved that this week," Safina said. "She has beaten some very good players. It's another match for me. I just want to focus on myself, playing my game and being aggressive, and let's see who's gonna be stronger tomorrow. She has her advantages and I have mine; it's going to come down to who uses them better tomorrow."

Jankovic's No. 1 dreams crushed; Kuznetsova ousted in quarters

With Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova ousted in earlier rounds, the drop out of Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova completed a Top 4 shut-out in the Canadian tournament.

Jankovic, seeded second, was first to take the courts, against Dominika Cibulkova, and she eventually lost in straight sets, 75 62, despite leading 5-1 in the first set. At the end of match, the Serb had twice more unforced errors than winners, (32-15).

"Until 5-1 I was doing quite well; I was feeling good and hitting the ball well," Jankovic said. "All of a sudden I got exhausted, completely lost my concentration. It was hard for me the rest of the match to keep up, because the points were quite long. The longer they went, I felt worse and worse. I just couldn't do it."

"I didn't start very well; I was quite nervous and was making a lot of mistakes," Cibulkova said. "But I knew if I started playing my game and started stepping into the court and moving her more, I could come back. So I was just believing in myself and playing point by point. She gave me some chances and I took them."

Jankovic's chances of being No. 1 were also crushed, as she was supposed to reach the final to claim the No. 1 spot.

"I don't really think about No.1. If it's going to happen, it will happen. But at the moment I don't deserve that spot. I'm not in the best shape and I'm not at my highest level. It will take time for me to get better and better."

Kuznetsova, seeded fourth, was also ousted, by Dinara Safina, who No. 7 seeded, 26 63 62. Safina improved her head-to-head result against her countrywoman, now 5-4.

"I think in the first set she was just playing very good tennis; I haven't spoken with my coaches to see if they think I was doing something wrong," Safina said. "But then she gave some free points that helped me come back. After that, the match started to be close. I would say today, the luck was on my side."

Also through to the semifinals are No. 10 seed Marion Bartoli and No. 11 seed Victoria Azarenka.

Bartoli won her match to Ai Sugiyama, 62 63, despite being down 3-1 in the second set, and Azarenka won her match to Tamira Paszek, who took out top seed Ana Ivanovic, 64 75, despite being down 5-2 in the first set.

Safina, the highest seed left, will face Azarenka; Bartoli will take on Cibulkova. Both semifinals are scheduled for Saturday.

Wozniacki, Radwanska advance to semifinal; Pin out due to illness

On Thursday, two seeds on the bottom half of the draw, Caroline Wozniacki and Anabel Medina Garrigues, played to reserve a spot in the semifinals of the Nordea Nordic Light Open. On the top half, last year's finalist Vera Dushevina demolished her opponent in the quarters, and Katarina Srebotnik also came back from an early loss in her home country to reach the semis of the Swedish tournament.

The first to take the courts were the seeds. Wozniacki gained victory after an easy win to the Spaniard, 61 63. Wozniacki, seeded 4th, will next face No. 1 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who won her quarterfinal match to Camille Pin, due to the retirement of Pin.

Radwanska was leading 62 10 when Pin retired due to gastrointestinal illness, and she let the Pole enter the semifinals. Having beaten Wozniacki in last year Nordea Nordic Light Open, Radwanska will be looking for revenge as she will play the Pole for a final berth.

Dushevina was the last to take the courts, against Iveta Benesova, and she beat the Czech to move into the final four, 63 63. The Russian will next face No. 3 seed Katarina Srebotnik, who won her previous match to Virginia Ruano Pascual, 62 60.

Ivanovic loses shamefully; Jankovic has another chance to become No. 1

On Thursday, all of the third round match winners played for a semifinal berth. There were some shock defeats, including No. 6 seed Chakvetdze being ousted, and also the world No. 1 was sent packing.

The first match to take the courts included Svetlana Kuznetsova and 15-year-old rising star Michelle Larcher de Brito. Kuznetsova was struggling throughout the match, winning a tight first set, losing the second, but eventually coming back from nearly 2-0 down to win the match, 75 26 64.

"I went to watch her yesterday; I expected her to be good," Kuznetsova said. "This is my first tournament since Wimbledon, so it's hard to get the rhythm back. I was fighting a lot in this match, and that's why I won. But I give her all credit."

"I got a little bit tight sometimes, but I think I did pretty well throughout the whole match," said Larcher de Brito, who already has two Top 20 wins to her name and was looking for her first Top 10 win. "She's a Grand slam champion. She's a really great player. She was running me side to side and it was really tough. But it was a fun match; it was a good fight and I enjoyed myself."

On the same court in the night session, Tamira Paszek and World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic took the court. Ivanovic was entering the match with a thumb injury, which she said was holding her back throughout the match. Austrian Paszek surprised the crowd with an easy first set win, but Ivanovic took full control in the second, and eventually at the end of the match, the Austrian was in complete happiness after her win to the No. 1.

"The first thing I was thinking was, 'Well girl, you made it. It's over now,'" Paszek said. "The second thing was that it was the first Top 10 player I've beaten. I've had a lot of chances before and played some great matches but never did that. It was also the first night match I won in my career. So there were a lot of first times today. I don't know how, but I managed it."

"It was very frustrating because I didn't know how it was going to pull up; I was in pain through the whole match," said Ivanovic, who was struggling with a hurt right thumb coming into the match. "The pain wasn't so sharp but I couldn't hold my racquet on my forehand. I tried to fight as much as I could. I really wanted to win this match. But obviously she's a very good player. She figured it out."

Another match which took the courts was between Anna Chakvetadze and Marion Bartoli. Bartoli is now 3-1 in head-to-head results after winning to Chakvetadze 46 75 76(4), previously beating her in Luxembourg and Stanford two weeks ago.

In other matches, No.2 seed Jelena Jankovic ended the run of Canadian wildcard Stéphanie Dubois with a 63 62 win; No.7 seed Dinara Safina continued her strong summer with a 62 62 win over No.9 seed Patty Schnyder; Dominika Cibulkova beat No.12 seed Nadia Petrova, 76(2) 62; and No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka won inwhen Virginie Razzano retired down 76(4) 20 due to a thigh injury.

Jankovic previously won to Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round, and has won to another Canadian, Stephanie Dubois, in two consecutive days, and she has another chance to become No. 1, after Ivanovic has dropped out of the tournament.

"I took out two Canadians - maybe the people here will start to hate me now," Jankovic joked. "In those two matches the crowd was obviously against me. It's not easy to be in this kind of atmosphere, but I tried my best. I really wanted to focus on myself and my game, on what I have to do in order to win. I'm pleased with how I handled it. I'm happy to have gotten through this match."