Estoril Open 2006 News and Events

Flavia Pennetta
© Wire Image

Top seed Flavia Pennetta won her third three-set match of the week at the Estoril Open on Friday, while No. 2 seed Gisela Dulko suffered a quarterfinal exit.

Pennetta had a 2-0-career edge over her last eight opponent Eleni Daniilidou, with victories over the Greek at Wimbledon and Zurich last year.

However, Elena Vesnina (6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) and Maret Ani (6-4, 2-6, 6-2) had tested Pennetta in earlier rounds.

Once again Pennetta won the first set winning 30 of 46 points, but Daniilidou fought back to take the match to a deciding set.

Early breaks in the third set handed Pennetta, ranked No. 20 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, the advantage.

Confidence restored, the 24-year-old ran out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 winner to set up a semifinal encounter with No. 6 seed Jie Zheng.

Zheng beat Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 22 minutes.

In the earlier shock of day five at the Estadio Nacional, seventh-seeded Na Li knocked out No. 2 seed Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-3, 6-1 in their first career meeting.

China’s Li booked her place in the last four in just 66 minutes, capitalizing on Dulko’s poor returning game.

Dulko, ranked No. 30 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, won just 13 of 44 points on return of serve and 47% of first serves.

Li will now play No. 7 seed Emilie Loit of France in the semifinals.

Loit, the 2004 champion, out fought No. 3 seed Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain, ranked just seven places higher than her in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings.

The 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 victory in extends Loit’s unbeaten record at the Estadio Nacional to 8-0.

Loit had previously played Dominguez Lino on seven occasions, with six of their meetings coming on clay courts.

Dominguez Lino won their most recent meeting in the quarterfinals of Bogota 7-6(6), 7-5.

Victory was sweet for Loit, a winner in two hours and one-minute on Court One.