NEW YORK, April 8: Top-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia moved into the Amelia Island Tournament semifinals, while second seed Patty Schnyder was eliminated on Friday. Petrova, who has won 21 tour matches this year, needed just one hour and eight minutes to beat Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3 6-0. Switzerland's Schnyder was beaten 6-3, 6-1 by fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

After battling through a tough first set, Petrova lost just nine points and in the second set and won the final nine games to clinch victory.

Kuznetsova had just as easy a time against Schnyder after splitting the first four games of the first set, taking just under an hour to finish off the match.

She drilled 26 winners and broke Schnyder five times.

It was Kuznetzova's third straight win over a top 10 player.

In other quarterfinal play on Friday, Italy's Francesca Schiavone crushed Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-2, 6-3.

Schiavone was taking on Kuznetsova in the semifinal on Saturday with the Russian having won three of their previous four meetings.

Lucie Safarova earned a semifinal clash with Petrova by dominating American Jill Craybas 6-2, 6-2.

It will be the first match between Petrova and Safarova, and Safarova's first semifinal appearance.

Friday’s results:

Quarterfinals: 15-Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) bt Jill Craybas (US) 6-2, 6-2; 1-Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Virginia Ruano (Spain) 6-3, 6-0; 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt 2-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 6-3, 6-1; 3-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt 7-Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Germany) 6-2, 6-3 —Reuters