HOBART, Australia -- Unseeded American Bethanie Mattek-Sands will play in Friday's semifinals, while top-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli was a quarterfinal upset victim Thursday at the $220,000 Hobart International tennis event, a final Australian Open tune-up.
Fifth-seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova leveled the former Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli 6-4, 6-2 on the hardcourts at Domain Tennis Centre. Both Zakopalova and Bartoli were second-round winners earlier in the day, as the Czech overcame Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 and Bartoli blitzed Russian Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-1.
Rain wreaked havoc on the schedule here Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mattek-Sands also saw double-duty on Day 5, and she made the most of it. The American opened her day with a 6-3, 6-1 pasting of Japan's Ayumi Morita and capped it with a 6-4, 6-4 upset victory over eighth-seeded German Angelique Kerber in the quarters.
The 25-year-old Mattek-Sands will face China's Peng Shuai in the semis. Peng bested Belarusian Olga Govortsova 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in a second-rounder on Thursday and then whipped seventh-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3 in the round of eight.
One other quarterfinal saw sixth-seeded Aussie favorite Jarmila Groth pound fourth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2. Groth was the only quarterfinalist on Thursday who didn't have to play two matches. The Aussie notched her second-round win here on Tuesday before rain halted play.
Groth will battle Zakopalova in Friday's other final-four affair.
In some other second-round action on Thursday, Vinci vaulted past Brit Elena Baltacha 6-3, 6-4, Errani erased Aussie wild card Alicia Molik 6-1, 6-0, and Kerber dismissed Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 6-4.
