Safina, Venus reach semis; Jankovic bows out in Rome

Tennis Betting Lines

05/07/2009 - Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning world No. 1 Dinara Safina and former top-ranked star Venus Williams won their quarterfinal matches on Thursday, while two-time defending Rome titlist Jelena Jankovic was knocked out of the draw at the $2 million Internazionali BNL d'Italia tennis event.

The Australian Open and French Open runner-up Safina needed all three sets to sneak past Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 on the red clay at Foro Italico.

Meanwhile, the third-seeded Jankovic was dismissed by red-hot Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) fashion on Day 5 here. The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova upset Safina in last week's all-Russian title bout in Stuttgart.

The U.S. Open runner-up Jankovic defeated France's Alize Cornet in last year's Rome finale and also titled here in 2007 by beating Kuznetsova in the championship round.

A fourth-seeded Williams drilled 10th-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 6-2 in 1 hour, 9 minutes to setup a semifinal showdown with the 2006 Rome runner- up Safina, who supplanted Williams' younger sister Serena as the No. 1 player in the world last month.

The Wimbledon champion Venus titled in Rome in 1999 and was the runner-up here in 1998.

Venus is 2-0 lifetime against Safina, with both matches coming last year on hardcourts.

One other third-rounder saw sixth-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka defeat 16th-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Azarenka was a big titlist in Miami last month.

Friday's other quarter will pit the rising Azarenka against the former U.S. Open champion Kuznetsova. The Russian is 3-1 all-time versus the Belarusian, but the 19-year-old Azarenka won their lone meeting this season in a semifinal in Miami.

The 2009 Rome champion will pocket $350,000.

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