COLLEGE PARK, Maryland (AFP) - Israeli top seed Shahar Peer, a first-round loser in her past four events, advanced to the semi-finals of a $220,000 WTA hardcourt tournament on Friday in quest of her sixth career title.
Peer saved all six break points she faced to beat Italian eighth seed Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-2 in 66 minutes to reach her first WTA semi-final of the year after having reached seven of them in 2010.
Austrian third seed Tamira Paszek, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist, or Canada's Stephanie Dubois will face Peer in Saturday's semi-finals. Dubois reached her only other WTA quarter-final in 2005 at Quebec City.
Peer, who won her most recent WTA titles in 2009 at Guangzhou and Tashkent, was one victory shy of cracking the top 10 in April but lost five matches in a row and slid from a career high 11th to 24th in the rankings.
Peer, who defeated Brianti in the 2009 Guangzhou final in their only prior match, has changed her fortunes since making Harold Solomon her new coach.
Other later matches in the US Open tuneup event find France's Virginie Razzano facing Ecuadoran-born American Irina Falconi and Russian second seed Nadia Petrova facing Serbian fifth seed Bojana Jovanovski.
Petrova is battling back after a bout with vertigo earlier this year while Jovanovski, at age 19, is the world's top-ranked teen at 56th in the world.
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