• Madrid Open

Williams powers into Madrid semis

Venus Williams looked something like her best as she overcame Samantha Stosur © Getty Images

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Venus Williams booked her place in the Madrid Open semi-finals with an assured performance in her 6-3 6-3 defeat of Samantha Stosur.

The world No. 3 dominated from start to finish as she put pressure on the Stosur serve at every opportunity. The Australian showed the typically resilient approach that had served her so well in reaching the quarter-finals, but her inability to produce winners off of her opponent's flat and quick groundstrokes severely restricted her ambitions.

Both players ssecured breaks of serve in the first set but Williams took control as she broke in the eighth game. The American had further chances to force break points but missed two gilt edged putaways when ahead. Stosur forced a break point of her own, which Williams stamped out emphatically, but could not break back and handed the first set to the seven-time Grand Slam champion as she stepped in off the baseline and blazed a poorly timed forehand long.

Williams continued her powerful display in the second and broke in the seventh game to grab the advantage. Stosur, visibly tiring with each battering rally, tried her best to stay with her opponent but finally collapsed as Williams swept her way to 0-40, before finishing off the match in style with a superb jumping backhand past her hapless opponent.

"Sam's been playing well this season," Williams said. "I like to hit hard, and it looked like her game plan was to attack everything.

"She tried to take time away from me, but I knew I would not be pushed back. We both served and hit as hard as we could. She played well. It was a challenge for me. But I just went on autopilot at 4-3, it felt really good."

Williams has struggled on clay over in recent weeks but finally feels that she is beginning to find her feet on the red dust ahead of the French Open at Roland Garros.

"I really like clay, I like my job, my career, my life … my dog. I'm feeling healthy right now. It really helps to go into Paris feeling good."

Despite a relatively routine win, Williams will be keen to cut out the sloppy long groundstrokes that threatened to derail her efforts. The American has always struggled against tricky players like Stosur, who play a mixture of flat and sliced shots, and again she looked nervy at times when faced with deep and slow returns.

Williams will face Israel's Shahar Peer in the semi-finals, after the Israeli defeated China's Na Li 6-4 3-6 6-4. Peer created 18 break opportunities in the contest, taking six to claim the victory.

In a scrappy opening set that would set the tone for the match, Li forged ahead with a break in the fourth game. Peer replied with one of her own in the seventh, before stealing a march on her Chinese opponent by breaking again to lead 5-4. An eight-minute service game of high drama followed, with Peer coming out on top after six separate deuces to seal the set.

Li, appearing in her second straight WTA quarter-final, maintained her spirit and broke in the first game of the second but saw that advantage wiped out immediately as Peer hit back. Unperturbed, the Chinese right-hander continued her assault and forced two further breaks, which she backed up with two resolute service holds to level the match.

However, her resistance disintegrated in the decider which, despite maintaining a first-serves-in statistic of 80 percent, saw Li win less than half the points on offer behind her first serve. Peer's endurance seemed to hold better over the two hours and 35 minutes on court, claiming two breaks to clinch the match.

Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic is out after she succumbed to the power hitting of Aravane Rezai in the quarter-finals. Rezai kept Jankovic on the back foot for long periods to triumph 7-5 6-4.

Both players had their moments in the match, but it was always Rezai who laid the path for Jankovic to follow, breaking first in the seventh game for a 4-3 lead. Jankovic hit back and then fended off a series of set points, cleverly striking the ball back in the direction from which her opponent had come, but Rezai eventually claimed her second break of the match to take the first set.

There were three more breaks in the second set, once again falling in the Frenchwoman's favour, and by the time the final ball was struck she was a clear winner. Rezai served out for the match, comfortably, and will be a danger in the last four.

Lucie Safarova will provide the opposition after she continued her impressive week in Madrid by reaching her second semi-final of the season with a 6-1 1-6 6-4 win over No. 16 seed Nadia Petrova.

The Czech left-hander, who beat former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova in the first round, looked confident against her opponent's serve - particularly in the first set - and earned her place in the last four with terrific forehand winner down the line. Petrova hit 28 winners during the match - nine more than her opponent - but 49 unforced errors contributed heavily to her downfall, as she failed to convert a promising week into a very good one.

The Russian struggled to control her ball toss in the windy conditions and hit less than half of her first serves in during the opening set. Buoyed by this, Safarova attacked her opponent's second serve with a series of deep forehands, breaking three times as she claimed 91% of the points on offer when pace was taken off the ball.

Petrova, who came from a set down to beat No. 1 seed Serena Williams in the third round, made the most of a break between sets and appeared stern faced and deep in concentration as she contemplated her next move. Whatever she played through her mind worked. The Russian responded with impressive resolve and sent a much improved 80% of her first serves in as she levelled the score in sets.

A tight deciding set ensued, but Safarova always looked the likelier of the two to pull through as she regained her verve. The world No. 35 confirmed her dominance with a break in the third game, courtesy of two consecutive dumped backhands by Petrova, and saw out her remaining service games to seal a deserved win.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.