Bartoli through to Eastbourne semifinals

EASTBOURNE, England, June 21 (UPI) -- Defending champion Marion Bartoli advanced to the semifinals of the AEGON International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, England, with a straight-set win.

The women's quarterfinals were completed around rain storms, but the four men's singles matches set for Thursday were delayed until Friday.

The fourth-seeded Bartoli defeated No. 7-seeded Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-2. She fired eight aces and dropped only 11 points in nine serving games. Bartoli did have her serve broken once but ended with four breaks against Safarova.

No. 5-seeded Angelique Kerber was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Ekaterina Makarova in 59 minutes. Kerber won 59 percent of the points in the match. Makarova was good on 80 percent of her first serves but Kerber still won nearly half the points when Makarova served.

Also Thursday, Klara Zakopalova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 7-5 and Tamira Paszek beat Tsvetana Pironkova 6-0, 6-4.

Bartoli draws Paszek in the semifinals. They have played once before with Bartoli winning a match in 2007. Kerber is 2-1 in her previous meetings versus Zakopalova, but they haven't played since 2008.