Serena-Wozniacki set up semifinal showdown

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Serena-Wozniacki set up semifinal showdown

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Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki have set up semifinal clash at the US Open Tennis Tournament.

09 September,2011 07:52 am

Serena Williams has yet to find anyone who can push her for two sets or beat her in one at this years U.S Open.Next to try will be the top-ranked player in the world, Caroline Wozniacki.Williams and Wozniacki each won in straight sets Thursday to set up a semifinal at Flushing Meadows in the headliners half of the draw. Williams defeated No. 17 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-5, 6-1 and Wozniacki beat No. 10 Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 7-6 (5).No. 9 Samantha Stosur and unseeded Angelique Kerber also won Thursday and will play in the other semifinal.In the men’s event top-seeded Novak Djokovic advanced to the US Open semifinals when his opponent, Janko Tipsarevic, retired with an injured left hamstring while trailing in the fourth set Thursday.Djokovic was ahead 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 6-0, 3-0 when the 20th-seeded Tipsarevic retired.Djokovic had his own visit from the trainer after sliding to get to a drop shot early in the fourth set. The trainer came out and looked at his bleeding left toe.Djokovic made it to his sixth straight Grand Slam semifinal and improved to 62-2 this season. On Saturday, he will play the winner of the later quarterfinal between Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.Even with Tipsarevics early exit, the match took 3 hours, 27 minutes.Rafa Nadal led a charge of players who took it upon themselves to get the US Open back on track by racing through matches on Thursday after rain wiped out the previous two days of the years final grand slam.Nadal and Andy Murray, who are both unhappy at the daunting prospect of having to win four matches in four days to claim the title, were in no mood for charity against their unseeded opponents and won their fourth-round matches in straight sets.Andy Roddick and John Isner pulled off two upsets, beating higher-ranked European opponents in four sets, to keep the American flag flying in the mens draw. But Roddick was also fuming as his match was moved to an outside court because of wet patches on one of the main stadium courts.Nadal, who led a player revolt against tournament officials who tried to make him play during the drizzle on Wednesday, kept alive his championship defence with a 7-6 6-1 6-2 win over Luxembourgs Gilles Muller but was in no mood for celebrating.Nadal found a sympathetic ear in Murray, his likely semi-final opponent. The Scotsman produced his best display of the tournament so far to crush American wildcard Donald Young but knows the hardest challengers are yet to come.Roddicks 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-3 win sets up a quarter-final clash with Nadal while Isner, also playing on an outside court, beat French 12th seed Gilles Simon 7-6 3-6 7-6 7-6.