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Wozniacki too good for Petrova

Caroline Wozniacki was in fine form in Charlston © Getty Images

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Caroline Wozniacki breezed into the semi-finals of the Family Cirrcle Cup with a 6-3 6-4 win over Nadia Petrova.

The pair met earlier in the season at Indian Wells, where Wozniacki came out on top in three sets, but on this occasion it was a far more comfortable day for the Dane.

Wozniacki earned an early break of serve, but Petrova showed her quality to hit back immediately. The No. 1 seed Wozniacki was not knocked off her stride and her consistent depth from the back of the court proved a real obstacle for Petrova.

As Petrova struggled to combat Wozniacki's excellent hitting, she became increasingly frustrated and the Dane took advantage by taking the first set by the same scoreline that she did in their meeting at Indian Wells.

Petrova showed great mental strength to hold her serve at the start of the second set, but Wozniacki just kept hitting good length and it yielded its reward in the fifth game when Petrova sent a forehand into the tramlines at break-point down.

Wozniacki backed up her break with a solid service game and though Petrova saved two match points with some excellent attacking play in game nine, Wozniacki closed out the match on her own serve when Petrova netted a backhand.

Vera Zvonareva will provide Wozniacki's semi-final opponent after the Russian defeated Melanie Oudin of the USA 7-5 6-2. Oudin broke on two occasions in a tight opening set, but Zvonareva always had the upper hand and went on to book a comfortable passage into the last four.

Daniela Hantuchova sent the No. 2 seed crashing out of the event as the Slovakian battled back from a set down to beat Jelena Jankovic 1-6 6-3 6-3. Jankovic produced some quality tennis in the first set and four breaks of serve enabled her to race through the opening salvo.

Hantuchova has steel as well as silk in her armoury and found her stride in the second. Breaks of serve were traded, but it was Hantuchova who found the greater consistency and it was a similar story in the third set as the No. 8 seed secured the win.

Hantuchova will play Sam Stosur who was a hugely impressive winner over Shuai Peng, with the Australian claiming a convincing 6-4 6-1 win in one minute over an hour.

In the Barcelona Ladies Open, Francesca Schiavone remains the overwhelming favourite to take the title after she set up an all-Italian final with Roberta Vinci.

Top seed Schiavone dominated Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova to win her semi-final 6-1 6-2, needing just 68 minutes to book her place in Saturday's showpiece. Vinci was made to work far harder in her last-four clash, eventually beating Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 6-7(4) 6-1 6-2.

As reigning champion Vinci does have the experience of last year's finale, when she beat Maria Kirilenko, and she has won both of her two previous career final appearances to date. However, her head-to-head record against Schiavone reads 3-1 in Schiavone's favour, although their one solitary meeting on clay went the way of Vinci.

Schiavone is vastly more experienced though, having reached 11 finals in the past, and she is the favourite to collect the €27,500 prize.

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