Doha: Vera Zvonareva ended Kim Clijsters' nine-match winning streak 6-4, 7-5 at the WTA Championships on Friday and secured the year-end No. 2 ranking for the first time.
Zvonareva, yet to drop a set after three group matches in the elite event, ensured she will play No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals on Saturday. Clijsters will face Sam Stosur in the other semi.
Earlier, Elena Dementieva surprisingly announced her retirement after bowing out to French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-2. Then Victoria Azarenka, the replacement for Serena Williams, earned her first victory of the tournament by 6-4, 6-1 over the ailing Jelena Jankovic.
Zvonareva, who lost to Clijsters 6-1, 6-2 in the US Open final, used a strong net presence and powerful backhand to beat the Belgian for third time since Clijsters came out of retirement last year.
The first set went back and forth until Zvonareva's powerful return was netted by Clijsters. Clijsters jumped out to 3-1 in the second but Zvorareva stormed back to tie it 5-5. She led 6-5 on a powerful backhand and raced to 40-0 on her way to winning the final game.
"It has been an amazing week so far. I had three tough matches," Zvonareva said. "They are all great players here and to win against them is nice."
Clijsters partly blamed her first loss since August on her three-set victory over Victoria Azarenka that finished in the early hours of Friday and left her exhausted.
"You know, obviously last night's match was pretty tough and kind of just felt it today," Clijsters said. "So obviously I'm going to have to feel much better and then just going to have to get my energy back. I kind of just felt flat out there today."
Dementieva and Schiavone were already eliminated from semifinals contention before their match and Dementieva didn't reproduce the form she showed in beating Stosur the day before.
Schiavone's consistent returns and net play forced Dementieva into hitting returns long and wide and the Italian was in no mood to finish her first singles appearance in the tournament without a win. At one point, Schiavone won 10 of 15 games. Dementieva committed 28 unforced errors.
Schiavone was happy to be heading to the Fed Cup final between Italy and the United States in San Diego next week with a win.
"I played a little bit better and was little bit more focused and confident than Elena," she said.
Dementieva ended her 13-year career, featuring 16 singles titles, two Grand Slam singles finals and the Beijing Olympics gold medal, in an emotional on-court ceremony surrounded by her rivals. She said she had no regrets.
"It is so emotional. It is so hard to say goodbye. I am going to miss you so much," Dementieva said.
Azarenka repeated her win over Jankovic at the same stage on the same court a year ago. "It was a tough match. I am happy that I finished the season with a win," Azarenka said.
But the No. 8-ranked Jankovic, a semifinalist the last two years, didn't win a match all week, often being outplayed and looking sluggish. She hit seven double faults and won only one of eight break points on Friday.
Jankovic said coming into the tournament that she wasn't 100 per cent. She said her sinuses still bothered her this week and she complained after her first match on Tuesday of dizziness and had to go on an IV drip.
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