Serena reaches Los Angeles semi-finals

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2006

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Seven-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams reached the semi-finals of the 600,000-dollar WTA US Open tuneup here with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6-4 victory over Meghann Shaughnessy.

Williams has won this tournament twice. But the 24-year-old is playing in just her third tournament of a season that included a six-month injury layoff between an early Australian Open exit and the WTA event in Cincinnati in July.

She reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati, then took another brief break to avoid overtaxing her left knee.

Williams, who rallied to beat seventh-seeded Daniela Hantuchova in three sets on Thursday night, wasted no time on Friday in digging herself out of the hole after dropping the first-set tiebreaker to Shaughnessy.

She won...