DOHA — World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and third-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova moved into the Qatar Open semifinals Friday as Serena Williams eyed becoming the oldest woman to take the top ranking. Azarenka moved closer to a successful title defense for the second tournament in a row when she overwhelmed Sara Errani, the French Open finalist, 6-2, 6-2. “She's a great fighter and I'm just happy to get through to the semifinals again here,” said Azarenka Sharapova, who has won the Qatar title twice and remains unbeaten in Doha after reaching the semifinals in the other half with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sam Stosur, the former US Open champion from Australia. On Thursday, it took Serena less than an hour to complete a 6-0, 6-3 win over Urszula Radwanska, the world No. 37 from Poland, and to take herself to the brink of another remarkable achievement. She'll face Petra Kvitova, who recovered from 1-3 down in the final set to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 against Nadia Petrova. Querrey beats Hewitt Third-seeded Sam Querrey beat Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (6), 1-6, 7-6 (4) Thursday to reach the SAP Open quarterfinals. Querrey's opponent in the last eight will be Colombia's Alejandro Falla, who reached his first quarterfinal of the season by knocking off seventh-seeded Marinko Matosevic of Australia 6-4, 6-4. Top-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada advanced with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over American Michael Russell. Roanic will play No. 6 Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who topped Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2. In other matches, Belgium's Xavier Malisse, seeded eighth, squeezed past Australia's Matthew Ebden 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (1) in a match that lasted almost 2 1/2 hours; and American Steve Johnson reached his first career quarterfinal with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over American qualifier Tim Smyczek. Nadal wins in singles Spain's Rafael Nadal cruised to a two-set victory in his singles debut at the Brazil Open Thursday. The former world number one needed only 78 minutes to prevail over Brazilian Joao Souza, ranked 140th in the world, 6-3, 6-4. Nadal advanced to Friday's quarterfinals where he will face Argentine Carlos Berlocq, who beat eighth seed Albert Ramos 7-6 (9/7), 6-4. Del Potro in semis Second seed Juan Martin del Potro cruised into the semi-finals of the Rotterdam World Tennis Tournament Friday with a victory in straight sets against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen. The Argentine won 6-3, 6-4, and will now face unseeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the last four, after he came from a set down to beat Marcos Baghdatis earlier in the day. Del Potro took just under 90 minutes to go through, racking up 10 aces along the way before sealing victory on his second match point as the Finn returned long. “It was a difficult win, he's a lefty and hit his shots differently,” said the 2009 US Open champion, who is currently ranked seventh in the world, of his opponent. “He was fighting all the time and I had to play my best game to go through.” Dimitrov beat Baghdatis 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/0), 6-3 in a performance that showed he is returning to the kind of form he produced at the start of the year, when he reached the final in Brisbane before losing to Andy Murray. The Bulgarian had also beaten Baghdatis in three sets in that tournament, and he repeated the feat here. Defending champion Federer gave up just one break point as he swept aside Thiemo de Bakker 6-3, 6-4 Thursday. The 17-time Grand Slam champion was never seriously troubled in front of the 123rd-ranked Dutchman's home crowd at Ahoy arena. "I'm happy. Things are obviously pretty quick indoors," Federer said after winning in just over an hour. "Thiemo can serve well and he is very talented, so it is a good victory for me." — Agencies
