Serena Williams, still trying to put the sting of her Wimbledon final defeat behind her, reached the semifinals of the 600,000-dollar WTA hardcourt tournament here Friday. The top-seeded American, playing in Stanford for the first time, punched her ticket to the final four with a 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder. The tournament is Williams's first since falling in the Wimbledon final to elder sister Venus earlier his month. Although she hasn't won a Grand Slam title since the 2007 Australian Open, Serena has put together an impressive season with three championships and a 33-4 record. The 26-year-old has reached the quarterfinals or better at eight of nine events she has entered, with her only defeat before the round of eight coming against Katarina Srebotnik in the third round of the French Open. Williams next faces Candian Aleksandra Wozniak, who beat Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. In other quarterfinal matches, Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama advanced after 19-year-old Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova was forced to retire with a left leg cramp. Sugiyama battled back from the brink of defeat, saving three match points in the second set, and was leading 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 5-3, when the match was halted. Sugiyama will face sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, who upset second seed and defending champion Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-3, 6-4. Blake in semis Top-seeded James Blake breezed into the semifinals of the $525,000 Indianapolis Championships with a straight-set romp of Chinese Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2 6-0 on Friday. The American dominated in every facet, converting on 5-of-8 break points to take control of the match. Blake was equally dominant on service, winning all 20 of his first-serve points and not allowing his opponent one break point opportunity. Blake will face defending champion No. 3 Dmitry Tursunov next, as all top four seeds have advanced to the semis. Tursunov overcame an opening set loss to defeat Chilean opponent Paul Capdeville, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. The Russian was broken twice in the opening set and double faulted nine times in the match. Tursunov rebounded and found his service rhythm, recording 12 aces. Second seed Gilles Simon had to wade through his own first-set wobble to advance by defeating number five Tommy Haas 4-6, 6-4, 6
