Venus continues march, tops Pin to move to Bangkok semis

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Venus Williams charged into the semifinal of the Bangkok Open with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win over Camille Pin on Friday.

The world No 8, searching for her second trophy in three weeks, tamed the little known Frenchwoman with her superior groundstrokes to wrap up the match in just 68 minutes.

"The score looked easy but it was not. Every time I hit good shots she hit back," Williams said. "I tried not to make easy errors and make my shots."

Williams breezed through the first set in less than 30 minutes before being challenged by Pin in a long deuce in the fifth game. She hit a smash to go up a double break at 4-1 in the second set, then won the match after Pins made a drop shot wide on match point.

Williams will meet Italian Flavia Pennetta on Saturday to battle for a spot in the final of the $200,000 tournament.

Pennetta came from behind to upset fourth seed Shahar Peer of Israel 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and one minute.

The seventh seed Pennetta had a blister on her left foot and had to call for her trainer after the fifth game of the first set. But she fought back from a break down at 1-3 in the second set to reach her third straight semifinals after Seoul and Tokyo.

"I was playing with the tape on my foot and it was so painful. But I took the tape off and started to play better and moved better," said Pennetta.

Williams and Pennetta met in a semifinal at the Korea Open in Seoul just two weeks ago - a match that Williams won 6-2, 6-2.

"What can I say about her? She is a champion and she is going make the season ending championship for sure," the Italian said. "It's going to be a tough match."

Williams also felt she had to take lessons from their earlier match.

"She plays well," Williams said of Pennetta. "She tries to take her chance and be aggressive when she can. I have to play my best game."

American Vania King, the defending champion, struggled to beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-4) in a second round match continued from Thursday. The Slovak had been leading 9-8 in the first set tie-break when rain interrupted play Thursday night.

King, however, bowed out of play with a back injury before she was to meet Zi Yan later Friday, giving her Chinese opponent a walkover victory to advance to the semis.

The other quarterfinal match saw Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan defeat Urszula Radwanska of Poland, 6-2, 6-3.