Tennis: Ana Ivanovic knocked out

Bartoli, Wickmayer reach semis in Indian Wells.

Marion Bartoli and Yanina Wickmayer grabbed the opportunity presented in the wide open bottom half with contrasting victories to reach the semi-finals. Bartoli made the best of her new found consistency to upend former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic’s dream of a grand return to top flight tennis with a laborious 64 76(4) victory and become the first player to reach the last four of the $4.5mn BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Yanina Wickmayer removed the highest remaining seed in the bottom half, when she thrashed the 10^th seeded Shahar Peer 63 63 in just 62 minutes.

In the first match of the day, Ivanovic failed to produce the tennis she brought to bear on defending champion Jelena Jankovic in the earlier round. Bartoli fired a thumping forehand down the line return winner to earn a breakpoint in the first game. For the third time in the game, Ivanovic drove into the net to offer an early break to the Frenchwoman.

With neither player serving well enough, the first three games went against serve before Bartoli held in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. But this was a contest in which the breaks came in a flurry and Ivanovic clawed her way back to even the score by the sixth game.

A sweetly timed lob at 30-30 in the ninth game allowed Bartoli to sniff yet another break and when Ivanovic dumped her forehand in the net, the 15^th seed served out the set with an elegantly smashed winner off a weak return.The second set was a see saw battle that contained an astonishing eight service breaks. While there was a lot to be desired about the quality of tennis being produced, the constant breaks of serve were providing for an intense phase that swung one way then the other. Ivanovic began the tie-break much the same way she had the first two sets, gifting Bartoli a mini-break with an untimely double fault.

With Bartoli serving at 5-4, Ivanovic rushed to the net only to dump the volley in the net. The Frenchwoman sealed the match with a big serve and an overhead smash to claim victory in two hours and 7 minutes. The match was characterised by the thirteen breaks of serve, corroborated by the fact that neither player managed to win even half the points on serve.

In the other match, the Belgian 23^rd seed was more than Peer could handle on the day. Wickmayer sprayed winners from all parts of the court to completely dominate the Israeli from the sixth game in the first set. At one point, Peer managed to win just a solitary game during a stretch of nine games.The 10^th seed offered a token of resistance towards the end by breaking the Belgian in the eighth game of the second set to get to 5-3. But in the very next game, Wickmayer took her first match point with a powerful forehand return that forced an error from Peer to close out the match.

Wickmayer will play Bartoli in the semi-finals on Friday, taking a 0-2 career deficit into the match against the Frenchwoman. Thursday’s action will see the top half contest their two quarter-finals. In what promises to be a cracking encounter, world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki will take on the in form Victoria Azarenka. The Dane has a slender 3-2 career edge against the world No. 9 Belarusian. In the other match, Maria Sharapova will take on the Chinese star Shuai Peng.

Yanina Wickmayer stretched on route to tennis

Defending ASB Classic champion Yanina Wickmayer was pushed to three sets in her second round match in Auckland today and she was forced to raise her game to its highest level to see off Germany's Sabine Lisicki.

The Belgian won 6-2 3-6 6-2 in five minutes short of two hours and will go on to play Simona Halep from Romania in tomorrow's quarterfinal.

Lisicki, who is on the comeback trail after an injury ravaged 2010, looks like being a player who could have a strong year ahead of her and the performances she's put on this week would indicate she is getting back to the form that took her to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2009.

Lisicki didn't play as badly in the first set as the 6-2 score line would suggest and it was just that she wasn't able to raise her game for the big points as Wickmayer did that cost her.

The second set was a similarly tight affair but this time it was the German that came out on top, to cause a surprise and take the match into a final set.

Wickmayer got a service break early in the third set and throughout it played at the same level she reached against Dinara Safina yesterday in the first round.

After the match Wickmayer said she knew she had to raise her game to grab the deciding set.

"After the second set I knew I had to do something more to win the match otherwise I knew it was going to go the other way," Wickmayer said.

"I wanted to put it up to another level and play some great tennis.

"She's a great player and has had some bad luck with injuries and I knew it was going to be a tough match.

"I tried to be a lot more aggressive and lift my game, it wasn't that easy with the wind and maybe a risk in making more mistakes, but that's the game I wanted to play and I'm so happy now."

Meanwhile Britain's Anne Keothavong has failed to follow her compatriot Heather Watson into the quarterfinals and was knocked out today 7-5 6-3 by Kateryna Bondarenko.

In the last match today, the tournament's second seed Julia Georges from Germany defeated France's Alize Cornet 6-2 6-4. She will play Kateryna Bondarenko in the quarterfinals.

Wickmayer, Isner returning to Auckland

American John Isner and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer will both return to Auckland in January to defend international tennis titles won this year.

The 2.06m Isner, ranked 20th in the world, has confirmed he will return for the Heineken Open on January 10-15.

Likewise, Wickmayer, also ranked 20th, will defend her ASB Classic title on January 3-8.

Isner's maiden ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) title in Auckland at the start of this year ignited a solid season for the American, who reached four other finals and starred in the longest professional match on record at Wimbledon in London when he spent 665 minutes on court before beating Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 in a first round marathon.

"John Isner really is a big name in the sport after some quite remarkable results in 2010. No one will ever forget Wimbledon and his win at the Heineken Open captured the crowd's imagination," Heineken Open tournament director Richard Palmer said today.

"He's one of the nice guys of the tour and making four finals during the year proves he's a player of real substance. Having been ranked as high as 18 in July this year you get the feeling Isner could be on the verge of something big with his ranking."

Palmer also confirmed the return of Wickmayer for the women's tournament.

"It's great to get our defending champion returning, especially when Yanina is ranked in the world's top 20 players," he said.