MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Vera Zvonareva cruised through to the semifinals of the Indian Wells hard court tournament in California while top-seed Dinara Safina surprised the crowd by losing in three sets to a 19-year-old Belarusian.
Twenty-four-year-old Zvonareva had no trouble dispatching Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6:4, 6:2 on Wednesday and will now face Belarus' Victoria Azarenko, who outplayed the 2009 Australian Open finalist 6:7, (4:7), 6:1, 6:3, to notch up her first career win against Safina.
Unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 17, an upcoming newcomer from Russia's Samara Region, will be hoping she can repeat Zvonareva's success when she takes on Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, seeded seventh, in the quarterfinals later on Thursday.
In the men's tournament, Russia's Igor Andreev failed to reach the quarterfinals when he was beaten by Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic in three sets.
