seeded Nikolay Davydenko saved five set points in the first set Friday before reaching the semifinals of the Croatia Open with a 7-6 (10), 6-1 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy. Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain also advanced by beating Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina, 7-5, 6-2 to set up a semifinal against Andreas Seppi of Italy. Seppi ousted Chile's Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4. Austria's Jurgen Melzer beat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Williamses dreaming of final The Williams sisters remained on course for another final showdown when the top two seeds eased into the last eight of the Stanford Classic with routine second round victories on Thursday. Wimbledon champion Serena needed a second set tiebreak to overcome Hungary's Melinda Czink 6-3, 7-6, while big sister Venus advanced with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva. In other matches, fourth seeded Jelena Jankovic was pushed hard by German teenage prospect Sabine Lisicki before emerging with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory. The Serb advanced to a meeting with eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France after last year's losing finalist beat American teenager Melanie Oudin 7-5, 6-4. Mayer stuns Kunitsyn Argentina's Leonardo Mayer pulled off the third upset of seeded players at this week's LA Open, eliminating fifth-ranked Russian Igor Kunitsyn 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 in the second round on Thursday. The 22-year-old Argentine will next face second-seeded American Mardy Fish, who survived a few anxious moments before scraping past Australian wildcard Chris Guccione 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. In other matches, fourth-seeded Israeli Dudi Sela beat American Robert Kendrick 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 and Sam Querrey held off a spirited fight-back by fellow American Ryan Sweeting to win 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Dushevina in semis Fifth-seeded Vera Dushevina reached the semifinals of the Istanbul Cup Friday by routing No. 3 Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-1, 6-2. Dushevina won 16 of 19 points on Medina Garrigues' second serve and broke her opponent five times. The Russian will next play Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, who needed just 50 minutes to beat Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-0, 6-1. In the other semifinal, Andrea Petkovic of Germany will play eighth-seeded Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.
