Kim Clijsters Brushes Aside Ivanovic

Kim Clijsters showed that she is intent on defending her U.S. Open crown at Flushing Meadows as she brushed aside former world number one Ana Ivanovic with the loss of just three games.

Clijsters is the second seed in New York this year and looked in imperious form yesterday as she blew Ivanovic off the court, disappointing for a match that was expected to be a great clash.

The two women did struggle with their serve as the wind swirled around the Arthur Ashe stadium but it was Clijsters who held herself together better and a double break saw her take a convincing 5-2 lead.

After a poor couple of seasons from Ivanovic she had fallen down the rankings but a better season from the former French Open champion has seen her move back up to number forty in the world.

And while she showed flashes of her skill she just couldn't stay with Clijsters and the Belgian served out the set after just thirty minutes.

Into the second and it was just one way traffic as the defending champion put her foot on the gas and was producing winners from all over the court to open up a 4-0 lead.

And while Ivanovic did get on the board to avoid the bagel set Clijsters sealed an impressive 6-2 6-1 win to in just fifty nine minutes.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the match Clijsters said: "At the beginning you have to settle down with the wind and adjust, especially with the serve, and then I felt I started moving forward better and dictating the points better and was defending pretty good as well.

"I've always played really good matches in America. I enjoy playing on hard courts and you automatically do well in places where you feel good and have done well before, so the US Open is a special tournament for me."

She will now face French Open runner up Samantha Stosur for a spot in the semi final. The Australian had to save four match points under the floodlights of the Arthur Ashe stadium in the night session as she finally saw off Elena Dementieva.

Dementieva has struggled with injury since the French Open but has looked in fine form in New York and was close to victory in the third set of the match.

But Stosur dug deep in the in the tenth game to fend off four match points before wasting two match points of her own two games later to take the final set into a tie break.

It was Stosur who bossed the breaker as she opened up a 3-0 lead, something that she maintained to wrap up a 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-2) victory and set up a clash with Clijsters.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw