Charleston: Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Nadia Petrova on Friday, while second-seeded Jelena Jankovic was upset by Daniela Hantuchova.
Wozniacki next faces Vera Zvonareva, who defeated American Melanie Oudin 7-5, 6-2 in another quarterfinal later on Friday.
Eighth-seeded Hantuchova faces Australia's Samantha Stosur, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Peng Shuai of China, in Saturday's other semifinal.
"I feel like I'm playing very well," said Wozniacki, who won the title last week at Ponte Verde Beach, Florida. "I'm very confident, and I've got some good results with my play."
Former champion Jankovic breezed through the first set of her match, winning the first three games before Hantuchova broke her in the fourth. But Jankovic went down 0-4 to open the second set and never recovered in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 loss.
"I played really well in the first set and I played really aggressive," said Jankovic, ranked No. 7. "But then I just stopped and I especially had trouble hitting my backhand."
It was Hantuchova's first win against a top 10 player in three years.
"Definitely, I felt very good on the court today, even though the first set was not easy," Hantuchova said.
She decided to change her game after losing the first set.
"I tried to put a little more on the ball, move her a little more around and stay more aggressive, and that made the difference," said the 24th-ranked Slovakian.
Stosur trailed 3-4 in the first set against the unseeded Peng.
"I got that break down, and on that change of ends I thought I had to step it up a gear and not play so many straight through the middle and give her a chance to hit it," Stosur said.
During the evening match on stadium court, Zvonareva had to deal with a raucous partisan crowd cheering for Oudin. But they quieted after the Russian won the first set and quickly jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second.
"It was pretty tough out there," Zvonareva said "I'm sure next time we're going to be playing in Moscow and everyone is going to support me."
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