BEIJING — Rising tennis star Laura Robson became the first British woman since 1990 to reach a main tour singles final Friday when she defeated Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 in the WTA Guangzhou Open. The 18-year-old world No.74 convincingly beat her Romanian opponent in a one-and-a-half hour semifinal in the southern Chinese city. The Londoner had beaten second seed Zheng Jie of China 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals, before defeating Zheng's compatriot, seventh seed Peng Shuai 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in three-and-a-half-hours Thursday. Reaching the final in Guangzhou is another landmark in a superb season which has seen Robson winning Olympic silver in the mixed doubles with Andy Murray and reaching the US Open last 16. The teenager is the first British woman to contest a WTA tour singles final since Jo Durie at the Virginia Slims of Newport tournament in the US in 1990. Robson became British No.1 earlier this week after she defeated Kim Clijsters and Li Na during her impressive US Open run. She is also the first British woman to reach a WTA tour singles semifinal since Anne Keothavong at the Luxembourg Open in October 2011. Youzny, Fognini advance Top-seeded Mikhail Youzhny advanced to the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open by beating seventh-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 Friday. Youzhny, the 2004 champion and a two-time runner-up, managed only five points on his serve in the second set but recovered after an early break in the third set and won four consecutive games for a 5-2 lead. The Russian will next face either Martin Klizan or Ricardas Berankis. Fourth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy also advanced, defeating Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain 6-4, 7-6 (1). Fognini will next play Daniel Gimeno-Traver. The Spaniard eliminated Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-2, 7-5. Wozniacki in semifinals Caroline Wozniacki reached the semifinals of the Korea Open by defeating Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 Friday. The Dane will next face Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, who beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-1, 6-1. Also, Varvara Lepchenko of the US beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia defeated Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4. Monfils makes last 4 Seventh-seeded Gael Monfils beat second-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 at the Moselle Open Friday to reach his first semifinal since February. The Frenchman next faces fifth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy, who had a more comfortable 7-5, 6-2 against No. 4 Florian Mayer of Germany. Monfils reached the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory over compatriot Nicolas Mahut. Kohlschreiber, a runner-up three years ago, defeated Benoit Paire of France 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. Third-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain was forced to retire with an abdominal injury when trailing Ivo Karlovic 6-2, 2-2. The Croatian will face Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals after the eighth-seeded Russian defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, 7-5, 6-4. Seppi cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Frenchman Vincent Millot in just over an hour. American Jesse Levine faces a quarterfinal against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after beating Michael Berrer of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. — Agencies
