Linz, 16.Oktober 2009 - Once again, the top seeds struggled. But once again they won. Flavia Pennetta beat Ioana Raluca Olaru 7-5 6-2, second seed Agnieszka Radwanska overcame Lucie Safarova 6-3 7-6 (11-9), and third seed Yanina Wickmayer defeated Sara Errani 7-5 6-3. Fourth seed Carla Suarez Navarro failed to join them in the semi-finals, however, falling 7-5 6-4 to unseeded Petra Kvitova.

Flavia Pennetta looked tired, and she admitted she is tired. It’s that time of the season when almost everyone is struggling. And she’s got a way to go yet. She needs to win the title this week and also next week in Moscow to have any chance of competing in the Sony Ericsson WTA Championships in Doha. But even if she doesn’t make that goal, and she is realistic enough to know that is an almost impossible task, her season will still drag on into November because she will be part of Italy’s team playing in the Fed Cup final against the United States. At least she will be playing on home ground so another long flight isn’t necessary.

´We start in January and I am going to finish on 8th of November because we have the Fed Cup final, so it’s going to be a very long season this year,´ she said. ´It’s not easy to be healthy at the end of the year when you play so much. I think we need a little bit more break but it’s not easy for the tournaments, to have good weeks and everything.

´I think three months would be a very good break for us. After Fed Cup I’m going to take eight days off. It’s not that much, but then you have to start again. You can be at home for five weeks but you have to work. You can have just one week off completely.

´Actually I felt a little bit better than yesterday, but she started very aggressive, very focused. She was playing very well today, especially the first set, but then she started having problems with her serve.´
Radwanska is also chasing a place in Doha, and she admits she is not comfortable on the slow court as it makes her weary body work harder to win the points. So if she had been taken to three sets she would not have been happy. It nearly happened. Safarova held two set points at 6-4 in the tiebreak, but Radwanska hung in there and eventually won the tiebreak, and the match, on her fourth set point.

´In the beginning of the match she made a couple of mistakes and I think that’s why I was winning very quick 5-1,´ said Radwanska. ´But then she played much better and it was very tight. It was like 50-50. For sure I was going to be in trouble in the third set, so I was just trying to be focused on her set points. It was just so close.´

By contrast, Wickmayer had a more comfortable day. She always looked the more likely winner, even in a close first set. The Belgian held three set points on Errani’s serve at 5-4 and, although Errani held for 5-5, Wickmayer broke her at the next opportunity when leading 6-5. An early break in the second allowed her to relax a little, and although she failed to serve out the match at 5-1 she came through at 5-3.

Suarez Navarro has kind of flown under the radar. She isn’t well-know, but she is the fourth seed in Linz for a reason. One of those reasons is that she defeated Venus Williams at the Australian Open this year, when she reached the quarter-finals. But Kvitova can top that. Not only did she also beat Venus Williams, in Memphis last year, and she upset reigning world number one Dinara Safina at the US Open last month.

Incredibly, the Spaniard failed to win any of eight break points she held in the first set. Kvitova also failed to win her first eight break points, but she earned and won a ninth, and that was enough to earn her the first set. After a break each in the second, both because of double-faults and in Kvitova’s case no less than three consecutive double-faults, the Czech broke again for 4-3 and that was it. Adios, Carla.