Maria through to another semis

Maria Sharapova reached her 12th semifinal of the season by beating fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 7-5 at the Generali Ladies championship in Linz on Friday.

The top-seeded Russian missed three set points while serving at 5-4 in the first and when she led 5-2 in the second set, double-faulted twice while serving for the match and was broken.

"I didn't know Ana's game too well as we had never met before, but she played some amazing tennis," Sharapova said.

"I shouldn't have let her come back in the second set. I hope to learn from that."

Sharapova will next play third-seeded Patty Schnyder or Vera Zvonareva.

Battling Sharapova in Zurich finals

US Open champion Maria Sharapova had to battle hard for a 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 victory over unseeded Katarina Srebotnik to reach the final of the Zurich Open.

Waiting for her in Sunday's showdown will be the winner of the other semi-final between fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova and Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.

Srebotnik provided dogged resistance, and neither player faced a break point until 4-4, when the Slovenian played a poor game and surrendered her serve to love with a netted forehand.
But Sharapova failed to capitalise, dropping her own serve to love with a succession of errors, and she then had to fight off a set point at 6-5 with an ace.

Sharapova always looked the more comfortable player in the tiebreak, securing it with her sixth ace, and she then took a 2-0 lead in the second set against a disappointed opponent.

But Srebotnik quickly recovered her composure, and a Sharapova double-fault followed by a backhand error earned her the break back at 3-1.

Sharapova received a warning for coaching after dropping serve, but she responded by taking control of the rallies and winning the final three games, breaking for 4-2 and the match by forcing backhand errors.