Serena halts Bedanova’s dream run

In the final, the 1999 US Open champion will take on France’s Julie Halard-Decugis, the winner over former World No 1 and top seed Monica Seles, who abandoned the match at 6-4, 4-3 with a foot problem.

Bedanova, ranked 87th against Williams’ eighth, capitalised at a 30-40 break chance at 1-3 in the fifth game of the second set and another in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead.

But that was all she could do as Williams hit a couple of lightning service return winners to break the following game and went on to win the next two games to clinch the victory.

Sanchez fights back

Filderstadt: Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario staged another of her famous fightbacks to deny Amanda Coetzer victory and advance into the semi-finals of the 535,000-dollar WTA Grand Prix here on Friday.

The fourth-seed Spaniard rallied from 3-1 down in the final set to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, and will next play Martina Hingis.

The top seed eased past eighth seeded Dominique Van Roost of Belgium, winning 6-2, 6-1 in just 56 minutes. The other semi-final will be between unseeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who swept the last five games to upset second seed Conchita Martinez of Spain 7-5, 7-5, and third seed Nathalie Tauziat, who beat Anne-Gaelle Sidot 7-5, 6-2 in an all-French clash.

Even if Coetzer managed to reach and return them, it was a simple matter for the Spaniard to hit the ball back into the open court.

But Coetzer eventually settled and reduced her errors, and by adding more pace to the ball in the third set she was able to force an error from Sanchez-Vicario to break for a 2-1 lead. But disaster struck in the sixth game when, after leading 40-0, Coetzer allowed Sanchez-Vicario to break back for 3-3.

That was all the encouragement the Spaniard needed, and she went on to win the final five games of the match.

While Sanchez-Vicario struggled, Hingis sailed through against Van Roost, and even relaxed enough to try a little serve and volley. It was effective, and she won quite a few points at the net.

It took Hingis until her sixth break point to lead 2-0, but once she made that early breakthrough it was plain sailing. Van Roost often forced too much, and gave Hingis many free points.

Philippoussis enters final

HONG KONG: Nicolas Kiefer will draw a bead on the huge serve of Mark Philippoussis on Sunday in the final of the $ 75,000 Salem Open after knocking-out second seed Tim Henman of Britain 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday.

Kiefer dominated Henman in 90 minutes and began what he hopes will be a successful Sports weekend for Germany.

No 4 Philippoussis booked his spot with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 win over fellow Australian and seventh-seed Patrick Rafter, a two-time finalist here who lost to Michael Chang in 1994 and 1997.

Philippoussis owns a 2-1 career lead over Kiefer, but the German won their last encounter in 1997 on hard-court in France. Kiefer put the Henman out at Victoria Park under bright sunshine, forcing his opponent to unforced errors and using his own chances wisely.

A brief medical timeout for a look at his ankle at the start of the second set didn’t bother Kiefer, who claimed a title earlier this year at Dubai. Philippoussis won San Jose that same month.