MOSCOW (Reuters):

Top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova reached her first Kremlin Cup semi-final in convincing fashion by crushing fellow Russian Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-2, yesterday.

The world number two, making her fifth successive appearance in Moscow, broke Dushevina twice in the first set and twice more in the second before putting away her 46th-ranked opponent with an overhead smash after 71 minutes.

"It was a pretty comfortable win for me," said Kuznetsova, 22, who has not dropped a set in her four meetings against the 21-year-old Dushevina. "I broke her early in the first set to set the tone for the rest of the match and could just cruise along. In the second set I was even able to experiment with my game a little bit, like rushing to the net more often. It was a good preparation for Saturday."

The Russian will now take on former world number one Serena Williams, who overcame eighth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 6-4, 7-6, after a hard-fought battle lasting nearly two hours.

The fourth-seeded American, making her second appearance in Moscow, 10 years after her debut as a 16-year-old, took the opening set after breaking Vaidisova in the seventh game.

The Czech edged ahead 5-3 in the second, but the Australian Open champion, playing with her right thigh heavily strapped, broke right back to level the score and force a tiebreak. She finally ended the contest on her fourth match point when Vaidisova put a tame forehand into the net.

NO PRESSURE

Looking ahead to her semi-final clash, world number seven Williams said of Kuznetsova: "She is doing so well, she is now number two in the world and number one in Russia. Trust me, it means a lot with so many talented Russians out there.

"I'll go into the match with nothing to lose because she's ranked higher than me. I had that same attitude at the Australian Open and it worked great for me, it got me the title, my eighth grand slam."

The American leads their head-to-head duel with Kuznetsova 2-1, but the Russian won their last match, in the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Grand Prix, last week.

The second semi-final will be an all-Russian affair between two unseeded players, Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina.