DUBAI — Venus Williams won her 45th career WTA title in an impressive 6-3, 6-0 victory over Alize Cornet of France in the Dubai Championships final Saturday. The 44th-ranked Venus, playing courtesy of a wild card, also won this title in 2009 and 2010. She's won her last 15 matches in Dubai. Venus, who will move up to No. 29 in Monday's updated rankings, last won a title at the 2012 Luxembourg tournament. The 26th-ranked Cornet was attempting to post back-to-back wins over the Williams sisters. On Friday, Cornet scored her first career upset over a No. 1-ranked player by beating Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. Nadal, Ferrer in semis Top-seeded Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals of the Rio Open, showing no problems with a sore back in defeating Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-0 Friday. No. 1-ranked Nadal, in his first tournament since losing the Australian Open final, played his best match in Brazil and will face fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar in the semifinals. Andjuar ripped through Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-1, 6-1. In the other semifinal, second-seeded David Ferrer will meet unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov. Ferrer defeated Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Dolgopolov of Ukraine advanced against third-seeded Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-1. In the combined ATP-WTA event, top-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic reached the semifinals, defeating Katarzyna Piter of Poland 6-4, 6-0. Zakopalova will face Brazilian Teliana Pereira, who defeated Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-4, 6-4. Japan's Kurumi Nara also advanced. She won the first set 7-6 (5), and was leading the second 2-0 when Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino withdrew with a left leg injury. She will face Nastassja Burnett of Italy, who defeated Paula Ormaechea of Argentina 5-7, 6-2, 7-5. Tsonga to face Gulbis Defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came through a stern test against 117th-ranked Jan-Lennard Struff to win 7-6 (4), 7-5 Saturday, setting up an Open 13 final against third-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia after he upset top-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-2. Isner rallies US second seed John Isner rallied Friday to reach the ATP Delray Beach Open semifinals, where he will try to deny Marin Cilic his third final in as many weeks. Big-serving Isner fired 18 aces in outlasting US qualifier Rhyne Williams 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 while Cilic, a seventh seed from Croatia, dispatched Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 6-3. Cilic won his fourth career ATP crown on home soil at Zagreb two weeks ago and last week reached the Rotterdam final, losing to Czech Tomas Berdych. Hitting 12 aces and converting five of six break points, Cilic advanced in 79 minutes and took the 2014 lead in match wins with 16. The other semifinal will send South Africa's Kevin Anderson — who eliminated Australian Marinko Matosevic 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-3 — against 142nd-ranked US qualifier Steve Johnson, who eliminated Spanish sixth seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-2. – Agencies
