Clijsters stops Kournikova

Kournikova has been troubled by injury this year

Top seed Kim Clijsters made her way into the semi-finals of the Seat Open with a battling performance against Anna Kournikova on Friday.

Clijsters ended her Russian opponent's comeback from injury with a 7-5 7-6 (2) win at the tournament in Luxembourg.

The Belgian world number five will now face third seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa on Saturday.

Coetzer, former winner of the $170,000 event, beat Kveta Hrdlickova of the Czech Republic 3-6 7-6 (2) 7-6 (3) in her quarter-final clash.

Clijsters won the Seat Open in 1999, while Coetzer triumphed two year's earlier.

But there was disappointment for the 1996 winner and fourth seed Anke Huber, who lost to US doubles specialist Lisa Raymond 7-6 (5) 6-4.

Davenport marches on in Linz

Raymond - doubles champion this year at Wimbledon and the US Open - is set to face Slovene qualifier Tina Pisnik.

Pisnik beat Meilin Tu of the United States 7-6 (1) 7-6 (5).

Until this week, Kournikova had lost all five of her matches since coming back from a stress fracture of the left foot which had kept her out for most of the season.

In Austria, defending champion Lindsay Davenport moved into the semi-finals at the Generali Ladies WTA tournament in Linz.

She outfought Sandrine Testud of France 6-1 7-6 (7), while Jelena Dokic and Iroda Tulyaganova also advanced in the $565,000 event.

Dokic, of Yugoslavia, beat Alexandra Stevenson of the United States 6-3 7-5 in a hard-fought match.

Tulyaganova, from Uzbekistan, posted a comfortable 6-2 6-4 victory over Russia's Tatyana Panova.

In the remaining singles quarterfinals clash, seventh seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria triumphed 6-3 6-3 over Chanda Rubin of America.

On Saturday, Dokic will meet Tulyaganova and Davenport will play Maleeva.