Kim Clijsters faces a tight deadline to be fit in time for her Australian Open defense after she was forced to retire injured from her Brisbane International semifinal against Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova Friday. Clijsters had fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to win a tiebreak but took an injury timeout after the third game of the second set, with Hantuchova leading 2-1, for treatment on a hip injury. The 28-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion returned but lost the next game and then retired with the score at 6-7 3-1. Hantuchova, who received a walkover into the semifinals after Serena Williams pulled out with an ankle injury, will meet Kaia Kanepi in the final Saturday after the big-hitting Estonian demolished Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-0 in 56 minutes. In the Brisbane men's draw, top seed Andy Murray looked far sharper than in his earlier matches and romped into the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Marcos Baghdatis. The world No. 4, who will bid to break his Grand Slam drought at the Australian Open, had been less than convincing in his two previous matches but was ruthless against the Cypriot. Murray will now meet Bernard Tomic after the Australian teenager beat Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-3, 7-6. Pennetta-Zheng final In Auckland, Flavia Pennetta made up for quarterfinal loss to Angelique Kerber at last year's US Open when she beat the unseeded German 6-1, 6-2 to reach the ASB Classic final Friday. Fourth-seeded Pennetta will face China's Zheng Jie in Saturday's final after the unseeded Zheng rallied from a set down to beat third-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
