THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO -- Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak advanced to the semifinals at the Japan Open tennis tournament Friday.
The eighth-seeded native of Blainville, Que., defeated Australian Samantha Stosur 7-5, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
Wozniak also beat Stosur in the quarter-finals at Stanford this summer en route to her only career WTA title.
She struggled in the first set Friday.
"I was down 5-2 in the first and I was able to step up my intensity," said Wozniak. "I really wanted to come back. She was hitting well but I stayed confident and attacked."
The 21-year-old Canadian will face No. 5 seed Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in the semis. Kanepi beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) in her quarter-final match.
"I'm very happy to be in the semifinals," said Wozniak. "I really want to do my best to try and win against an opponent I don't really know."
In the other quarter-finals, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki coasted to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over seventh-seeded Tamarine Tanasugarn while Jarmila Gajdosova beat Klara Zakopalova 7-5, 7-5. They will face each other in the semis.
On the men's side, Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina upset top-seeded David Ferrer of Spain in straight sets to advance to the semifinals.
The fifth-seeded Del Potro beat Ferrer 6-1, 7-5 to end the defending champion's chance to repeat at the ATP event.
"It was a very tough match against one of the best players in the world," Del Potro said. "He won here last year and has been playing well."
Del Potro will play Richard Gasquet in the semifinals. The fourth-seeded Frenchman defeated Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-2.
Second-seeded American Andy Roddick cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Viktor Troicki of Serbia for another semifinal berth. Roddick will face Czech Tomas Berdych, who beat third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-0, 6-4.
.After cruising through the first set, Del Potro broke Ferrer in the eighth game of the second set to take a 5-3 lead. Ferrer got back on serve, but Del Potro broke in the final game, hitting a crosscourt forehand winner on match point.
"I tried a lot things," Ferrer said. "But Juan Martin is very confident. He's been winning a lot of matches lately and played very well today."
Ferrer had won his two previous meetings with the 20-year-old Del Potro, who has won 28 of his last 29 matches.
Roddick, coming off a victory at the China Open on Sunday, was in control from the outset against Troicki, who advanced to the quarter-finals on Thursday when his opponent, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, retired from his third-round match with an abdominal strain.
"That's the best I've played so far," said Roddick. "I didn't serve as well as I have the last couple of days but I played better from the baseline. Hopefully, I can put the two together on the weekend."
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(With files from The Associated Press)
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