Maria Sharapova took a step closer to her first tournament victory since January 2008 as she moved into the semifinals of the L.A. Women's Tennis Championships on Friday night. The former world No. 1, who has slumped to 61st in the rankings after nine months out with shoulder problems, beat Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-4 7-5 to set up a last-four clash with last year's losing finalist Flavia Pennetta. The Russian, whose last of 19 titles on the WTA Tour was ...

Venus Williams beat Elena Dementieva in the first match of the Bank of the West Classic semifinal on Saturday, the official WTA Tour website reported. Williams crushed her Russian opponent 6-0 6-1, hitting 17 winners to Dementieva's three and breaking serve five times. "She's a strong striker of the ball, so I was just focusing on winning every point," Williams said. "I felt my best games were the last two. Before those I felt I was making too many errors, ...

Top seed Serena Williams has crashed out of the Bank of the West Classic, but her older sister Venus reached the semifinals after thrashing Maria Sharapova. Wimbledon champion and world No. 2 Serena was upset 6-2 3-6 6-2 by unseeded Samantha Stosur in the first of Friday's quarterfinals, as the Australian earned a last-four clash with Marion Bartoli. The eighth-seeded Frenchwoman progressed after continuing her dominance over former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, defeating the Serbian fourth seed for the ...

Serena Williams has avenged last year's Wimbledon final defeat by sister Venus to claim the grass-court major for the third time. The 27-year-old, who also beat her older sibling in winning in 2002 and 2003, triumphed 7-6 (7-3) -2 with a powerful display on Center Court on Saturday to celebrate American Independence Day. Defending champion Venus, who was seeking her sixth Wimbledon title, matched her sister for intensity in the opening set but fell away badly after losing the tie-break. ...

Women's top seed Dinara Safina reached her second successive French Open final with a straight-sets semifinal victory over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday. The world number one posted a 6-3 6-3 success in an hour and 41 minutes and is now just one more victory away from a first-ever grand slam title. Safina lost to Ana Ivanovic in last year's Roland Garros showpiece, and also to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final earlier this year, but she will ...

Tough times call for tough measures. Nowhere is this truer than in Detroit's auto industry. News of General Motors -- once America's largest commercial enterprise -- possibly going out of business or eliminating divisions sends shudders through Wall Street and cities where GM employees work. Nadal, who took the year's first Grand Slam title by defeating Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, won 89 percent of his first serve points to just 57 percent for Gil. The Spanish star ...

World number one Rafael Nadal reached the fourth round of the ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament at Key Biscayne in Florida on Monday with a 7-5 6-3 success over Portugal's Frederico Gil. Nadal, who took the year's first Grand Slam title by defeating Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, won 89 percent of his first serve points to just 57 percent for Gil. The Spanish star was joined at the next stage by Briton Andy Murray who defeated Nicolas ...