The sun shone brightly on the Meadows Country Club in Sarasota for the first time all week, as eight ladies were cut to four as the tournament winds down.

Yugoslav Jelena Dokic, the top seed, maintained her position as the player to beat this week, as she dispatched former Top Ten player Patty Schnyder, 6-1 7-5. Dokic had not dropped a set in her first two matches against 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez and Anna Smashnova, winner of two titles this year, and indeed started off against the Swiss as if she was barely going to cede games. Once again, Dokic had to fight through tight games up to the first changeover, but once she took the 2-1 lead she started pounding winners from well inside the baseline. Schnyder is typically a slow starter, and it cost her as lazy shots with no pace were mercilessly pounded onto the lines by the steely Dokic. Schnyder owns wins over many of the game?s stars, including a pounding of Steffi Graf at the 1998 U.S. Open, but facing Dokic?s stellar mix of power and placement, she was unable to take the ball early, as she loves to do, and left many balls sitting high in the air for Dokic to smash at the end of points.

Still, after losing the set 6-1, Schnyder started going for more of her shots, and gave Dokic a scare. Her lefty serve came into play, as she rebelliously went for blatant winners in the nothing-to-lose mode. At one point Schnyder knocked off two aces in a row, and was able to push Dokic to 5-5. But Dokic was able to break the Schnyder serve when it counted most, calmly winning the final two games to secure victory and reach the semifinals. ?I would love to start off the clay season with a title,? said Dokic. When asked about why her father had been so serene recently after having been banned from the Tour, Dokic got metaphorical: ?It?s like when you don?t play tennis for a long time, and you come back and you?re a new person...well, he?s a new person.? Damir Dokic had been spending his off time decorating their new house in Florida. Indeed, Dokic pere has been in fine spirits this week, even having time to share a laugh with On the Line when we quipped ?tough match? to him after his daughter?s 1 and 0 rout of Smashnova.

Jelena confused much of the staff when she asked, before the start of the tournament, where she could buy some fine cigars. Damir has been smoking some fine cigars all week...

Dokic?s semifinal opponent will be the mellifluous Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano. Razzano, by rights, should never have played in the main draw to begin with, as she did lose in the qualifying round to Anna Smashnova. But she made it in as a lucky loser, which is the highest-ranked player to lose in the final round of qualifying, and gets the spot vacated by a main draw player if the first round has not been completed. Razzano was not only a lucky loser, she was the SECOND lucky loser in, as two players pulled out of the main draw. So, one would think that if she barely made the draw, she wouldn?t pose a threat to win the tournament. Yet that is exactly what she is doing, as she beat another player ranked far ahead of her to advance to the semifinals.

In Paola Suarez, Razzano faced a player who excels on clay, having won the Bogota event twice and the French Open doubles last year. Moreover, Razzano?s last victim was Virginia Ruano Pascual, who is Suarez? doubles partner and best friend. Surely Ruano gave Suarez some tips, and cheered her on today, as Suarez had barracked for Ruano yesterday. The Munro, Argentina resident is small but one of the fittest players on Tour, and looks like she could play a best-of-seven-sets match if necessary. Razzano, having already played five matches this week, would not be able to outlast her, so she would have to outhit her.

That is exactly what she did in the first set. Razzano knocked off two aces in the first set, pounded forehand and backhand winners on the lines with authority, and took out the unspectacular Suarez serve with repeated return winners which left her opponent screaming in anger. At one point, Suarez angrily returned to her chair to find a caterpillar on it, and she swiped her racket at the insect, knocking it to the clay and rapidly squishing it with venom.

Razzano survived two double faults and a break point in the set?s final game to clinch the first set 6-2, and after Suarez hit a backhand error in the first point of the second game, the Argentine gave a thirty-second monologue in Spanish at the service line. Increasing in pitch and volume as it progressed, it ended in the word ?libre? being screeched. Perhaps she was wishing to be free of unforced errors. At any rate, it seemed to do the trick, as she was able to smash a winner past Razzano to break for a 3-1 lead in the second. Razzano was starting to let her shots fly, punctuating one long backhand with a shocked ?ohh la la!? Still, she was able to get the break back, but, serving at 4-5, Suarez reverted to her strongest suit, electing not to try to match Razzano?s power and instead allow her brilliant retrieving and deep groundstrokes to lull Razzano into errors. Indeed, Razzano did just that, capitulating easily with a love service break. Suarez had captured the second set, 6-4, and Razzano immediately called for a lengthy injury timeout. A trainer attended to her right elbow, and, given Razzano?s often up-and-down mental state and Suarez?s experience and clay-court mastery, momentum had firmly swung to Suarez.

But, serving at 1-1, Suarez let a 40-15 lead slip, and once Razzano was able to hold on for 3-1, the Parisian looked rejuvenated and ready to win. Razzano picked up another break at 4-2, after Suarez let a 40-0 lead slip! Returning to the chair down 2-5, Suarez gave another speech en espanol, which obviously was more blue than the other one. It resulted in a warning for audible obscenity.

Again, letting off steam did her some good again, as she kept rallies going with her incredible gets, quickly breaking Razzano and consolidating. Razzano then came to the line at 5-4 having already blown one chance to serve out the match, and, quite visibly in discomfort, in dire need of a quick victory. Razzano threw in yet another double fault ? her seventh of the match ? to go down 15-30, but got to match point with a powerful forehand and a service winner. But two errors allowed Suarez to have a point to level the match at a set and 5-all. Suarez then hit her own forehand error, and Razzano was back at deuce. She had to deal with another break point, thanks to a crackling Suarez forehand, but saved it with a huge serve to set up a forehand winner. Another forehand winner gave Razzano match point, and won her second match in a row on an unreturnable serve to advance to the first WTA Tour semifinal of her career. The final score: 6-2 4-6 6-4.

The World #98, a lucky loser, had earned the right to face ninth-ranked Dokic in the semifinals. They?ve never played. ?Maybe I can win tomorrow,? said Razzano, who is here without a coach. ?I try tomorrow, but it?s been long week for me,? she mused through her heavy French accent. ?I?m not machine, you know!?...

Anastasia Myskina pulled off a miracle against Mary Pierce yesterday, but it was Meghann Shaughnessy who turned the tables on the Russian today. The American, seeded second, overcame her own bad mood and some poor serving to face down a match point and defeat Myskina.

Shaughnessy was having trouble matching Myskina?s whip-like, perfectly placed groundstrokes in the first set, which Myskina won handily, 6-3. The second set was a tense affair, as both ladies struggled to put in good serves on both the first and second ball, but each showed flashes of the flat shots that had brought them each into the quarterfinals. Still, Myskina had so many chances, as she led 3-0 and then 4-2 in the tiebreaker. Shaughnessy came up with the big shot when she needed to, and picked up the next point to get back on serve at 3-4. Each point would go with serve up to 5-6, when Myskina had match ball on the Shaughnessy serve. A rally led to Myskina being a few feet inside the baseline, with a reasonably short ball that, if not setting up an easy winner, would have clearly put Shaughnessy on the defensive in the point. But Myskina blasted it into the net, and with Shaughnessy?s box spurring her on and the crowd imploring her to level the match, Shaughnessy was able to win the next two points and take the tiebreak 8-6.

Myskina showed that she has been improving, as in previous years she would have folded easily, but stayed with Shaughnessy until serving a very sloppy game at 3-3. That gave Shaughnessy the crucial break, which she held to the very end of the match. In the final game, Shaughnessy served an ace and two service winners, and the World #13 from Scottsdale, Arizona, was through, 3-6 7-6(8-6) 6-4.

I asked Shaughnessy how she was able to stay so calm staring down match points, and she said that it?s just something gain from experience: ?You learn that it?s never over until the last ball, and you just have to stay in the match.? Shaughnessy also saved a match point in her first match against Jennifer Hopkins...

Shaughnessy will battle another Russian in the semifinals. Tatiana Panova defeated Janette Husarova of Slovakia in a hard-fought match on Center Court. The final was 6-4 4-6 6-1, as Panova, just over five feet tall, used her superior fitness to wear down Husarova in the deciding set. Panova is seeded ten, and for those of you who are thinking, Hey, shouldn?t there only be eight seeds?, give yourself a cookie, you?re right. The two players that pulled out of the draw were seeds, fourth seed Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan and eighth seed Anne Kremer of Luxembourg. The seeded slots were filled with the next-highest ranked players at the time of the draw. Panova was ranked #32 at that time and so barely got the final seeding, but right now, having made the quarterfinals of the Tier I event in Miami last week, sits at a career-high #25 and would easily have been seeded here had they used the rankings released on Monday...