Tennis
Serena set for Miami QF showdown with Vaidisova
By TSN
Mar 28, 2007, 16:30 GMT

Miami, FL - The women's quarterfinals at the $3.45 million Sony Ericsson Open will wrap up with two more matches on Wednesday, with the marquee bout pitting eighth-seeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova against three-time Miami champion Serena Williams.

Vaidisova and the 13th-seeded Williams will square off in a night session affair, while an afternoon clash will pit 14th-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer versus 24th-seeded Italian Tathiana Garbin, with the winners to do battle in the semifinals. Peer and Garbin have never met in a WTA Tour match.

The 25-year-old Williams topped the 17-year-old Vaidisova in the Australian Open semifinals in January, and then went on to capture her eighth career Grand Slam title.

On Tuesday here, the former world No. 1 Williams battered the former top- ranked Maria Sharapova for the second time in two months. The powerful American drubbed the Russian star in January's Aussie Open final and dismantled a top-seeded U.S. Open titlist Sharapova again here on Day 7 with a 6-1, 6-1 fourth-round shellacking.

Williams, who's currently riding a 10-match overall winning streak and is 12-1 for the season, captured this Miami tournament back-to-back-to-back from 2002-04.

Also on Tuesday, one of the semifinals here was determined when second-seeded Belgian Justine Henin held off sixth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova and ninth- seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze overcame 15th-seeded Chinese Na Li. The French Open champion Henin will meet Chakvetadze in the final four.

© 2007 The Sports Network