Wozniacki's dream comes true

DOHA: Caroline Wozniacki secured the year-end No. 1 spot in the world rankings on Thursday, becoming the first Dane to do so, but only after suffering an early fright at the WTA Tour Championships here.

For an hour, the 20-year-old top seed seemed in danger of going out of the event, until she worked out the clever tactical patterns of Francesca Schiavone, the French Open champion from Italy, and triumphed 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Wozniacki joined Australia's Samantha Stosur as a semifinals qualifier from the Maroon group at the expense of Elena Dementieva

Kim Clijsters made sure of qualifying for the semifinals with victory over Victoria Azarenka. Clijsters overcame the World No. 10 from Belarus 6-4, 5-7, 6-1, guaranteeing both she and Zvonareva, will go through. Clijsters, however later lost to Zvonareva 6-4, 7-5.

At Montpellier, Albert Montanes stunned Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4) to enter the semifinals of Open Sud de France. The others who made the semifinals were Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils and Jarkko Nieminen.

Bopanna-Qureshi pair advances

At St. Petersburg, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi erased a one set deficit against Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki 3-6, 7-6 (4), 10-3 to enter the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open.

The results:

At Doha: WTA Tour Championships: Maroon group: on Thursday: Caroline Wozniacki bt Francesca Schiavone 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; Francesca Schiavone bt Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-2. White group: Kim Clijsters bt Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-1; Vera Zvonareva bt Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-5.

At Montpellier (Open Sud de France): Quarterfinals: Gilles Simon bt David Nalbandian 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5; Gael Monfils bt Steve Darcis 6-4, 6-4; Jarkko Nieminen bt Richard Gasquet 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2; Albert Montanes bt Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(4).

At Vienna (Bank Austria Tennis Trophy):

Quarterfinals: Marcos Baghdatis bt Bjorn Phau 7-5, 6-2; Nicolas Almagro bt Juan Ignacio Chela 7-5, 3-6, 6-3; Andreas Haider-Maurer bt Marin Cilic 7-6(1), 6-4; Jurgen Melzer bt Philipp Kohlschreiber w/o.

At St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg Open): Quarterfinals: Ilya Marchenko bt Benjamin Becker 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Mikhail Kukushkin bt Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.

Doubles: Rohan Bopanna & Aisam Qureshi bt Janko Tipsarevic & Viktor Troicki 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-3 . — AFP