Kirilenko through to Pattaya semifinals

PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- No. 2-seeded Maria Kirilenko used a straight-set win Friday to advance to the semifinals of the WTA's PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand.

Kirilenko, who lost to Daniela Hantuchova in the 2012 Pattaya final, defeated seventh-seeded Elena Vesnina 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 on Friday. Each player had a break in the tight first set but Kirilenko ran off the final three points of the tiebreaker for the match lead.

She backed that up with three breaks in the second set when she won 57 percent of the points off Vesnina's serve.

Fourth-seeded Sorana Cirstea will go against Kirilenko in the semifinals after she beat Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-0 in just 57 minutes. She had two breaks in the first set and took two-thirds of the points in sweeping through the second.

Sabine Lisicki, the No. 5 seed, stopped Marina Erakovic -7, 6-3, 6-2 and unseeded Nina Bratchikova got by Ayumi Morita 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in the other quarterfinal matches.

Kirilenko and Vesnina have split their four career matches but Kirilenko won twice last year. Saturday will mark the first time Lisicki and Bratchikova play each other.