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Mauresmo advances to Key Biscayne semis
The No. 1 ranking may be beyond Amelie Mauresmo's reach at the Nasdaq-100 Open. She'll settle for winning the tournament. The top-seeded Frenchwoman advanced to the semifinals by beating 17-year-old Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-4 Wednesday.
Mauresmo, who spent five weeks at No. 1 last year, will regain the top ranking if she wins the tournament and beats a top-five player in the final. That means she needs for No. 3 Maria Sharapova to beat No. 9 Venus Williams in the other semifinal Thursday.
Lindsay Davenport, who skipped the hardcourt tournament to protect her troublesome knees, has been No. 1 since October.
"Of course I would love to get it back," Mauresmo said. "But having had it once, it's pretty different. My goals are somewhere else. Doing well in these big events is today more important to me."
Mauresmo's opponent Thursday will be unseeded Kim Clijsters, who won her 12th match in a row by beating No. 5-ranked Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-1 in just 56 minutes.
Unseeded David Ferrer became the first men's semifinalist by sweeping No. 26 Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-3. In Thursday's quarterfinals, No. 1 Roger Federer will play No. 6 Tim Henman, and No. 31 Taylor Dent will face six-time champion Andre Agassi, seeded ninth.
Mauresmo won the first five games and nine of the first 10 against Ivanovic, slowed by hamstring and ankle injuries and looking nervous in her first Tier I quarterfinal. The youngster committed 34 unforced errors, double-faulted five times and won only three of 17 points on her second serve.
Before this year, Mauresmo won only four matches at Key Biscayne in three appearances. She's 18-4 in 2005 and seeking her second title of the year.
"Since the tournament started, I feel like I'm playing better and better," she said. "The first set and a half today was the best. But also she was giving me some free points. I didn't have to work too hard for the first nine or 10 games."
Ivanovic, who began the year ranked 97th, will move into the top 50 next week for the first time. She upset U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round.
"I am pretty happy," Ivanovic said. "But there are so many things I have to still improve."
Clijsters continued her comeback from a wrist injury that sidelined her for much of last year. She has already won the Indian Wells title this month and is into the semifinals at Key Biscayne for the second time.
She had help against Dementieva. Of the 58 points Clijsters won, 41 came on unforced errors by the Russian, including eight double faults.
Ferrer came to Key Biscayne with a 5-8 record this year, but the Spaniard beat former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in the fourth round and needed barely an hour to eliminate Hrbaty.
Ferrer's 23rd birthday is Saturday, the day before the men's final.
"If I win," he said, "drinks are on me."
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