PALO ALTO (California), July 27: Top seed Venus Williams overcame some stubborn resistance from Anna Kournikova to forge out a 6-3 6-4 victory in their quarter-final match at the Bank of the West Classic on Friday.

Williams now plays unseeded American Lisa Raymond, a 6-4 6-2 upset winner over third seed Monica Seles for a place in the final of a tournament she won two years ago.

Earlier, Lindsay Davenport continued her rehabilitation from injury as she cruised past Jelena Dokic 6-2 6-2 in just 48 minutes and set up a rematch of last year’s final against defending champion and fourth seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

Clijsters reached the last four with a routine 7-5 6-3 win over 17-year-old Yugoslav wildcard entrant Jelena Jankovic.

Williams came into the contest with a 7-0 record against Kournikova, who has been struggling to find any sort of form over the past five months and slumped to a world ranking of 54.

But like she displayed in her first two victories here, the popular Russian showed off a powerful, remodelled game, engaging in numerous athletic rallies with the four-time grand slam champion.

Kournikova even had several ambitious attempts at attacking Williams’s powerful serve.

“I expected her to play well because she had to go for broke against me,” said Williams, who cracked 23 winners, including seven aces, to 17 from Kournikova.

Results (prefix number denotes seeding):

QUATERFINALS: 1-Venus Williams (U.S.) beat Anna Kournikova (Russia) 6-3 6-4; 2-Lindsay Davenport (U.S.) beat 5-Jelena Dokic (Yugoslavia) 6-2 6-2; Lisa Raymond (U.S.) beat 3-Monica Seles (U.S.) 6-4 6-2; 4-Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat Jelena Jankovic (Yugoslavia) 7-5 6-3.—Reuters