Second seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France had to fight her way through to the semi-finals, overcoming fifth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 in a match lasting 2 hours 22 minutes.
Kuznetsova attacked Mauresmo with gusto right from the first set, putting pressure on her serve and getting as many as 14 break points, but failed to convert a single one. Mauresmo for her part was struggling and got just one break point in the set, which too went abegging. The set thus went with serve and was decided via tie-breaker, which Mauresmo won 7-5. This was a marathon set lasting a minute over one hour.
The second set was also fiercely contested. Kuznetsova finally broke through in the fourth game to go up 3-1, but Mauresmo broke right back to put the set level again. Both players then held serve to go into the tenth game with the Russian leading 5-4, at which point she again broke Mauresmo to wrap up the set in 46 minutes.
Mauresmo then stepped up a gear to break Kuznetsova in the third and the seventh games of the deciding set to close it out 6-2 in just 35 minutes. The Russian, who had contested well till then, failed to get a single break point in this set.
