Estoril Open 2004 News and Events

Emilie Loit
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Third seed Emilie Loit booked her place in the semifinals of the Estoril Open with a hard-fought three-set victory over Czech Klara Koukalova.

Loit, who captured her first WTA Tour title in Casablanca last week, extended her winning streak to eight matches with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win. She now meets Marta Marrero for the second time in as many weeks after the Spaniard took just 59 minutes to record a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Austrian Barbara Schett.

Loit, who defeated Marrero in the quarterfinals in Casablanca last week, was looking forward to another meeting with the Spaniard. "I beat her in two sets last week, but here the conditions will be completely different," said the 24-year-old from France. "It's a lot windier here and I'm a little tired, but it's good that I beat her last week so I go into the match with the upper hand."

And Loit added that winning in Casablanca had given her the confidence to continue her quest for another title. "Everything is going well," said Loit. "Last week, it was great to be in my first final and win my first title. Now I'm in the semifinals, I want to keep up the winning habit.

"Today, I played a good first set but had a bit of a let down in the second. In the third set, I used the break at 2-1 to get a massage on my leg and it went a lot better afterwards."

Meanwhile, No. 6 seed Iveta Benesova won the battle of the Czechs as she defeated countrywoman Denisa Chladkova for the first time to reach the semifinals.

Benesova, the Czech No. 2 who captured her first WTA Tour title in Acapulco as a qualifier earlier this year, took just 61 minutes to book her place in her second semifinal on the circuit in 2004.

She will now meet French woman Stephanie Cohen-Aloro, who recovered from the loss of the first set to defeat Slovakia's Martina Sucha 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and reach her first WTA Tour semifinal of the year.

In the doubles final, Czech pair Olga Blahotova and Gabriela Navratilova will meet Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland and Janette Husarova of the Slovak Republic.