Zvonareva battles past Lansere to enter 28th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge semis

Experience will meet raw youth, while a Chinese will front the Asian challenge against a recent champion in the singles semifinals of the 28th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Habtoor Grande Resort, on Saturday.

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Now 41 and handed out a wild card here, former world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva staged a remarkable fightback to tame fellow Russian Sofya Lansere 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in nearly three hours of quality action, after 16-year-old qualifier Mika Stojsavljevic took nearly two and a half hours before defeating Polina latcenko 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) to set up a rather intriguing semifinal clash between the old and the new.

In the lower end of the draw, Petra Marcinko - last week's champion at the Fujairah W75 tournament — was leading 7-6 (5), 1-0 after her Dutch opponent Arantxa Rus retired, while Xinyu Gao of China will lead the Asian challenge following her 7-6 (4), 6-2 win against last week's runner-up in Fujairah, Alevtina Ibragimova.

Relieved at coming through one of the tough matches in recent memory, Zvonareva predicted another challenge ahead.

"It's not going to get any easier now on. I have watched Mika [Stojsavljevic] play, and I can see why she has been so successful on the tour so far. This is going to be yet another challenge before me," Zvonareva admitted.