Rome: Top-ranked Serena Williams dispatched Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday then waited to see if she will meet sister Venus in the Italian Open semifinals.
Venus Williams was up against Jelena Jankovic in a night match of former Rome champions at the Foro Italico.
"I have a really tough opponent next match whether it's Venus or Jelena," Serena said. "Obviously, 'Go V!'"
Serena had been out with a left knee injury since winning the Australian Open in January.
"My knee is feeling good so far," she said. "I can't believe I'm still in the tournament — it's weird."
In the other half of the draw, former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic beat 14th-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-2, 7-5 to reach her first semifinal since January at Brisbane, Australia.
With her ranking down to No. 58, Ivanovic recently hired Steffi Graf's old coach, Heinz Gunthardt to improve her game.
"We've worked a lot the last few weeks and I feel great out there," she said. "I've been working a lot on the serve and I'm getting a lot of free points. My serve has been a big issue the last year and a half and having confidence in it now puts less pressure on the other parts of my game."
Since winning the 2008 French Open, Ivanovic's only title was in Linz, Austria, later that year.
"It's all behind me now," she said. "I think every player goes through tough times, but it's not how many times you fall down, it's how many times you get back up. I'm really happy to be back on track."
Ivanovic's semifinal opponent will be 26th-ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 6-4.
After cruising through the first set and jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the second, Serena lost three straight games before regaining control on her service games, blasting aces at 198 kph (123 mph) and firing baseline winners at will.
Serena had an 8-1 edge in aces and 19-7 in winners. She attributed the brief lapse to a lack of "match toughness."
"I definitely should have been up 5-0," she said. "Hopefully as I start playing more I'll start to close these games out better."
Serena won this clay-court warmup for the French Open in 2002 en route to her only title at Roland Garros.
Martinez Sanchez maintained her focus during a brief downpour that interrupted play for 15 minutes just after the start of the first-set tiebreaker. The Spaniard also controlled the play with her big first serve, leading 7-0 in aces.
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