DUBAI: Caroline Wozniacki ensured she will regain the No. 1 ranking from Kim Clijsters after beating Shahar Peer of Israel to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Championships Friday. The 20-year-old Dane lost the top spot only Monday, but she will claim it back when the new rankings are released next week after seeing off Peer 6-2, 6-4. Wozniacki will take on the former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, who beat fourth-seeded Samantha Stosur 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4). Svetlana Kuznetsova beat eighth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 7-6 (7), 6-3, and will play the 11th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy who beat Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-2, 6-0. Wozniacki wrote on her Twitter page: “Won my match, playing the semis tomorrow and got my number 1 ranking back:” That prompted a reply from Clijsters: “Congrats :-) ha ha.” Raonic hammers 38 aces In Tennessee, Milos Raonic hammered a career-high 38 aces defeating Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-7 (10-12), 7-6 (7-1) Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP/WTA Memphis event. He will next face American qualifier Robert Kendrick for a spot in the semifinals. In other second round matches Thursday, American top seed Andy Roddick defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-1, 7-6 (10-8), Aussie Lleyton Hewitt rallied to beat France's Adrian Mannarino 6-7 (9-11), 7-5, 6-0, American Sam Querrey beat Brian Dabul of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) and Juan del Potro, of Argentina, easily defeated Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-4. On the women's side of the draw Thursday, Russian Evgeniya Rodina, Czech Lucie Hradecka, Rebecca Marino of Canada and Magdalena Rybarikova all advanced to the semifinals with straight-set victories. Soderling and Cilic advance In France, top-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden overcame a shaky start before comfortably beating defending champion Michael Llodra 6-1, 6-4 Friday to reach the semifinals of the Open 13. Soderling, ranked fourth in the world, plays the winner of Friday's later quarterfinal between fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria and unseeded Russian Dmitry Tursunov. Earlier, Marin Cilic of Croatia upset second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first semifinal of the season. The 22-year-old Cilic next plays third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who beat sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Almagro in quarters In Argentina, top-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain stayed on course to win his second tournament in two weeks by beating Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to reach the Copa Claro quarterfinals Thursday. Almagro will next face unseeded Argentinian Jose Acasuso, who rallied to defeat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1 in a 2-hours, 45
