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Bartoli advances into Bali semis

By AjayTyagi (TennisEarth.com), Submitted On

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Top seeded Marion Bartoli of France assured her place in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions at Bali with a 6-3 6-2 win over Shahar Peer of Israel.

Top seeded Marion Bartoli of France booked her place into the semifinals of the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions at Bali with a 6-3 6-2 win over Shahar Peer of Israel.

 "I was hitting hard and deep and didn't make many errors." said elated Bartoli.

"I had to stay really focussed at the end because there are so many matches against Shahar when I was winning a set and 4-1 or 3-0 and she was coming back to beat me in three sets," she added "I guess the game when I was 4-2 up and 15-40 down and still held my serve was really important."

Bartoli will play Japanese wild card Kimiko Date Krumm in the semi-finals, who was benefited from the withdrawal of Yanina Wickmayer.

Wickmayer withdrew from the tournament after she recieved a doping ban from Belgian Tennis Federation for failing to comply with 'whereabouts' clause three times in row.

Vera Dushevina of Russia who came as a replacement for Wickmayer, registered a 2-6 6-1 7-5 win over Medina Garrigues but could not reach the seims with one win under her belt.

In other matches of the day, German Sabine Lisicki battled past Hungarian Melinda Czink 6-2 6-7(1) 6-4 , while Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez stunned Australian Samantha Stosur  7-6 7-5.

Howver there was some consolation for Stosur in the match. During the match she fired a serve at 208kph - which, after verification, would beat the 207.6kph record held by Venus Williams.

"It's definitely been my best year - I had a chance to get to the Top 10 had I won this tournament, so I know that it's possible next year," the Australian said.