Caroline Wozniacki battled cramp in her leg to stand on the brink of reaching the WTA Championships semi-finals in Doha.
Danish world number four overcomes pain in Doha
Caroline Wozniacki battled cramp in her leg to stand on the brink of reaching the WTA Championships semi-finals in Doha after a dramatic defeat of Vera Zvonareva.
The Danish 19-year-old, who finished the match in agony after being struck with cramp in her left thigh, won 6-0 6-7 6-4 over the Russian late stand-in.
Zvonareva, who replaced injured Dinara Safina in White Group, had her own problems when she suffered a nose bleed in the middle of the second set.
Wozniacki, who was on the court a minute short of three hours before beating Victoria Azarenka in her opening match, seemed to be headed for an easy victory when she made the most of a slow start from Zvonareva, the world number nine and last year's runner-up.
However, she wasted a 5-2 lead in the second set which led to a brutal baseline clash that left both players exhausted.
Scrape
Wozniacki could have wrapped it up at 6-5 when she had two matchpoints, but her opponent held on and scraped a tiebreaker to set up a decider after a 10-minute break.
A thigh massage was given to Wozniacki after she moved into a 3-1 lead in the third but after breaking serve to lead 5-4, cramp struck at 30-30 and the Dane was left writhing on the purple concrete in pain.
Somehow she forged a third matchpoint and this time Zvonareva sent a weak forehand into the net after two hours and 48 minutes.
Wozniacki, who was tearful and hardly able to walk following the game, has one more group match against Jelena Jankovic before the semi-finals.
"I'm feeling better now. I got to cool down, got some massage," said Wozniacki, who made a controversial withdrawal from a tournament in Luxembourg last week.
"I'm going to do everything I can to get ready for tomorrow (her last group match). I'll drink a lot of fluids, eat some good food, do stretching, get massage, take a salt bath, everything."
Serena into semis
Serena Williams later had a far more straightforward match, becoming the first player through to the semi-finals with a 6-2 6-4 win over Russia's Elena Dementieva.
The American, who was also confirmed as the year-end world number number one on Wednesday after her closest rival for the honour, Dinara Safina, withdrew injured, made a slow start before overpowering an opponent who served 10 double faults.
"It feels good to be through because I've never really done well in this round-robin format," said Serena, who won the tournament in 2001 when it was a conventional knockout draw.
"Tomorrow I'm going to sleep all day because I've played every day so far here and I'm really tired."
Serena has won all three of her Maroon Group matches, meaning the three other players are fighting for second spot.
One of them is sister Venus, who later beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-7 6-4 to keep alive her slim hopes of holding on to her title.
Her fate, however, depends on the outcome of Friday's encounter between Kuznetsova and Dementieva.
