EASTBOURNE, United Kingdom — China's Li Na missed her chance for a semifinal spot at the ATP-WTA Eastbourne International on a muggy Thursday as the second seed lost to Russian Elena Vesnina 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Vesnina, winner along with compatriot Ekaterina Makarova of the Roland Garros doubles title less than a fortnight ago, carried confidence from her grand slam trophy onto the slick grass at Devonshire park as she beat her first top 10 opponent in two years. Australian Open finalist Li was competing at the pre-Wimbledon event for the fifth time and had never advanced past the second round. She has now lost three of her four matches against Vesnina, five years her junior at age 26. “Today was a little bit of surprise, the way she's playing,” said Li. “I think sometimes I can play well, but sometimes I think I lose concentration on the court. That's why the match was going like up, down a little bit. “I would have liked to have some more matches, but I'm looking forward to Wimbledon. Tennis is in the mind and my mind can go somewhere else. That's my problem right now.” The world No. 36 will next face the winner from compatriot and sixth seed Maria Kirilenko and Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. Fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki won a two-hour struggle between former champions as she defeated Makarova 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, her sixth win without a loss over the Russian. Wozniacki stared slowly, losing the opening set but running off nine games in a row to claim the second and reach 3-0 in the third. She stuttered by dropping serve at 4-2 but broke back to love as she moved onto victory. The Dane faces 41st-ranked qualifier Jamie Hampton, who beat Lucie Safarova 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 to become the first American to go this far at Eastbourne since Jennifer Capriati a decade ago. Hampton's victory was a repeat of her success against Safarova in the French Open first round. In the men's event, Ivan Dodig continued his giant-killing act a day after upsetting top seed Milos Raonic. The unseeded Croatian took down Italian eighth seed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-2 with a clinical serving display as he played in his third career grass quarter-final. 2011 champion and seventh seed Andreas Seppi reached his third straight semifinal here, beating Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-2. Meanwhile, Feliciano Lopez beat good friend and compatriot Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) with Verdasco complaining of a slick court. Wawrinka in semis Stanislas Wawrinka survived a second-set surge by Jeremy Chardy to beat the fifth-seeded Frenchman 6-4, 7-6 (2) Thursday and reach the semifinals of the Topshelf Open in Rosmalen on a rain-delayed day. In the women's draw, Dominika Cibulkova lost 6-4, 6-4 to Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 6-1 to set up a semifinal with third-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro, who rallied to beat Tsvetana Pironkova 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Wawrinka looked untroubled on his way to winning the first set, but immediately lost his service in the first game of the second before Chardy reeled off three straight service games to love to reach 5-3. Wawrinka then broke back and won the tie break. He plays Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Friday's semifinals after the Spaniard beat Jan Hernych 6-4, 6-1. — Agencies
