HAMBURG (Germany), May 4: Jelena Dokic left the court in tears after a thigh injury forced her to retire from her semifinal with Kim Clijsters in the Hamburg Cup on Saturday.

Second seeded Clijsters advanced 6-4 4-4, and will face top seed Venus Williams, who is just one match away from retaining her title after claiming a 7-5 6-3 victory over third seeded Swiss Martina Hingis.

In a tightly contested match played almost exclusively from the baseline, Dokic had a chance to take the opening set when she held a break point at 4-4.

But Clijsters struck a forehand winner and then broke to love to take the set in 29 minutes.

In the second set, Dokic broke for 1-0 and again to lead 4-1, but then dropped the next three games before calling for the trainer to attend to her heavily strapped right thigh.

Although she continued after several minutes treatment, Dokic retired in the next game.

Williams, however, showed no signs of the ankle injury that restricted her movement in the quarterfinals.

But both Williams and Hingis struggled to find their best form or stamp any real authority on the match, demonstrated by seven breaks of serve in the first set and another five consecutive breaks to close out the 72-minute contest.

“I was doing a lot better with the ankle. I was used to the tape and felt more confident on it than I did yesterday. I felt in control the whole time,” said Williams, ignoring the number of times she conceded her serve.

“She was playing good tennis, moving the ball around, playing deep and playing the short ball also. But I felt as soon as I had the ball on my racket then I could do whatever I wanted with it.”

The American was able to exploit Hingis’s weak serve, and her greater mobility and reach always gave her the upper hand.

But Hingis refused to be overwhelmed and struck several fine winners down the line to keep herself in contention.

Williams led the first set 5-3 but she was broken to love, serving two consecutive double-faults as Hingis levelled at 5-5. But a weak backhand into the net gave Williams a break for 6-5 and this time she served out to love.

Hingis was immediately in trouble in the second set, broken to love in the opening game, and Williams broke again to lead 4-1 and virtually assure herself of victory.

But she faltered again when serving at 5-2 and eventually secured a place in the final on her fourth match point.

“I always had plenty of chances, but when I broke her back I didn’t win my own service game,” said Hingis. “That was definitely the trigger point today.

Results: (prefix number denotes seeding):

Semifinals: 2-Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat 5-Jelena Dokic (Yugoslavia) 6-4 4-4 retired; 1-Venus Williams (U.S.) beat 3-Martina Hingis (Switzerland) 7-5 6-3.

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