Zheng books semi spot

Jie Zheng got the better of fourth seed Roberta Vinci - and the weather - to book her place in the semi-finals of the AEGON Classic.

Chinese player finally through to last four on another wet day

Jie Zheng got the better of fourth seed Roberta Vinci - and the weather - to book her place in the semi-finals of the AEGON Classic at Edgbaston. Heavy rain showers in Birmingham on Friday meant organisers had to reschedule the quarter-final matches. Zheng's match had at least got under way yesterday, with the world number 32 leading 6-3 5-6 before play was halted by the weather. And although the Chinese quickly dropped the second set to Italy's Vinci, she hit back to claim a 6-3 5-7 6-4 victory. "It was not easy," Zheng said. "The match was played over two days and we had the warm-up 10 times already. Yesterday, after the rain came, I was a little bit nervous. "I am just happy to win. I really wanted to win because this is the first time I have been in the semi-finals in Birmingham and also I really like to play on grass. So yeah, I keep fighting." Zheng will play the winner of the quarter-final between Jelena Jankovic and Misaki Doi, which was suspended on Edgbaston Priory Club's Centre Court due to rain. Jankovic was leading 2-0 in the opening set when the weather intervened once again. Ekatarina Makarova is also through to the last four after dodging the showers to beat Su-Wei Hsieh 3-6 6-3 6-3. The Russian will now take on either Melanie Oudin or Irinia Falconi. Oudin led 6-4 5-7 1-0 when play was called off to leave tournament organisers facing a backlog of matches.