Mara Santangelo, Tzipora Obziler book semifinal berths

Bangalore, Feb 16 (UNI) Last year semifinalist Melinda Czink of Hungary was ousted by Tzipora Obziler of Israel 4-6, 6-7(3), even as top seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy entered the semifinals, defeating Yurika Sema of Japan 6-1, 6-4 in the Sony Ericsson International WTA tournament here today.

Obziler, ranked 117, gave packing order to Czink in a match that lasted 105 minutes. Czink, ranked 97, who had defeated sixth seed Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in straight sets in the first round and Su-Wei Hsieh also of Taipei in the second round, failed to maintain her tempo. After losing the first set, she succeeded in stretching the second set to tie-breaker, but an unrelenting 33-year-old Oblizer won the set and stormed into the last four stage.

Right from the start, Obziler had an edge over Czink by winning the first three games and was in a hurry to finish the match.

However, Czink took the next three games to level the set score at 3-3, which then became 4-4. Springing back, Obziler claimed the next two games to clinch the first set 6-4.

Obziler, in her post-match comments, said the month-long preparation for the tournament fetched the expected result. ''I don't mind meeting anybody in the semifinal tomorrow. I have played against Sania last year in Hyderabad and lost, but I am well prepared this time.'' In the other quarterfinal match, defending champion Santangelo did not find resistance from qualifier Sema and wrapped up the game within 70 minutes in straight sets. The 25-year-old Santangelo, ranked 36, played an aggressive game right from the beginning.

A beaming Santangelo said that ''till yesterday, I was not playing up to the mark, but today it was my real game. I was very aggressive right from the beginning and it paid off.'' In the doubles, top seed Taipei pair Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang stormed into the finals by defeating Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia and Christina Horiatopoulos of Australia in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. The match lasted 60 minutes.

Results: Singles (quarterfinals): Tzipora Obziler (Isr) bt Melinda Czink (Hun) 6-4, 7-6 (7-3); S1 Mara Santangelo (Ita) bt Yurika Sema (Jpn) 6-1, 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Yung-Jan Chan (Tpe)/Chia-Jung Chuang (Tpe) bt Jarmila Gajdosova (Svk)/Christina Horiatopoulos (Aus) 6-3, 6-2.

UNI