Dubai, UAE  - World number one Serena Williams withdrew with a right knee injury before a Saturday Paris semi-final but said she hopes to be fit for next week's appearance in Dubai.

The Australian Open champion was to have faced Russian Elena Dementieva at the GDF tournament in Paris. But Williams said she felt something in her knee and withdrew as a precaution.

"I didn't feel well during the warm-up this morning, my knee hurt," said the American. "I'm extremely disappointed."

Williams said the first noticed the problem during her Friday quarter-final win over Emilie Loit.

Bangkok, Feb 14, : Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza on Saturday entered into the finals of Pattaya Open, defeating Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 5-7 6-1.

The unseeded Indian took two hours to win the encounter and enter the finals of 2,20,000 dollar Pattaya Open.

Sania broke eighth seeded Rybarikova in the fourth game of deciding third set to give herself a 3-1 lead. She converted first of the three breakpoints, which she earned after the Slovakian double faulted.

Ranked 126th in WTA charts, Sania became the first Indian player to win a WTA title when she won the Hyderabad Open in 2005.

Rotterdam, Netherlands  - Top seed Rafael Nadal reached his first semi-final at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis on Friday as Jo- Wilfried Tsonga set up match point with a double fault after serving 26 aces.

Nadal, who has gone the distance in all three of his matches, earned a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 victory, taking just under three hours.

"This was definitely my best match of the week," said the Spaniard, who came here after his Australian Open title with just three days off. "Tsonga was extremely tough. This was a very important win for me."

Rotterdam, Netherlands - Andy Murray takes a 1-3 record into his Saturday semi-final with Mario Ancic at the Rotterdam Open after advancing when French opponent Marc Giquel was unable to continue because of injury.

The second-seeded Scot advanced 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 3-0 when Giquel had to retire with a left thigh problem.

Ancic and Murray will meet in a repeat of the Marseille final exactly a year ago in which the Briton scored his only victory in the series with his Croatian rival before losing two more times in 2008.

Rotterdam, Netherlands - Andy Murray takes a 1-3 record into his Saturday semi-final with Mario Ancic at the Rotterdam Open after advancing when French opponent Marc Giquel was unable to continue because of injury.

The second-seeded Scot advanced 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 3-0 when Giquel had to retire with a left thigh problem.

Ancic and Murray will meet in a repeat of the Marseille final exactly a year ago in which the Briton scored his only victory in the series with his Croatian rival before losing two more times in 2008.

Rotterdam, Netherlands  - The only Germans in the field at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis crashed out in straight sets on Wednesday with Philipp Kohlschreiber and Rainer Schuettler making first-round exits.

But it was a different story for a French quartet, all of whom advanced with relative ease.

Fourth seed Gilles Simon led the way as he accounted for the 38th-ranked Kohlschreiber 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) two years after the German reached the quarter-finals at the Ahoy centre.