Anastasia Myskina [Images] recovered from a slow start to end India's singles challenge in the Sunfeast Open tennis tournament and advance into the semi-finals of the US $170,000 event in Kolkata on Friday.
The Russian top seed beat Florida-based Shikha Uberoi 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals to join Estonia's Kaia Kanepi and Croatia's Karolina Sprem in the last four stage.
Kanepi beat Sybille Bammer of Austria 7-5, 6-3, while Sprem accounted for Hungary's Melinda Czink 6-3, 6-1.
Second seed Elena Likhovtseva of Russia [Images] beat Sophie Arviddson of Sweden 6-1, 7-5.
Myskina, ranked 12th in the world, broke Shikha's serve in the tenth game to win the first set. The Russian took charge of the match in the second, breaking her opponent's serve in the fourth and eighth games.
Myskina had dropped only two games in the Tier III event before the quarter-finals and is now overwhelming favourite to win the title.
In the semi-finals, Myskina will play Kanepi while Sprem will take on Likhovtseva.