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Ferrer cruises into semis

Den Bosch, Netherlands - David Ferrer crushed Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-1 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the Unicef Open.

The top-seeded Spaniard needed just 43 minutes to rout Sijsling, allowing his Dutch opponent to win only one game in front of the home crowd at the grass-court tournament.

Ferrer will next play Benoit Paire of France, who beat Ito Tatsuma of Japan 6-3, 7-5.

Philipp Petzschner of Germany and Xavier Malisse of Belgium will meet in the second semi-final match.

On the women's side, Kim Clijsters of Belgium beat the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) in a match that was held up by rain.

It was Clijsters's third win of the tournament, giving the Belgium player a boost after she's been out of play most of the season due to injuries. She next meets Urszula Radwanska of Poland, who defeated Solia Arvidsson of Sweden, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).

Clijsters will play in Wimbledon, but is unseeded at the Grand Slam tournament - for the first time since 2000. Wimbledon starts on Monday.

"It was a very intense match. Schiavone is a player who keeps fighting and has all sorts of different strokes," Clijsters said.

Hampered by ankle and hip injuries this year, Clijsters is playing only her second tournament since the Australian Open in January, where she reached the semi-finals.

Also on Thursday, eighth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia overpowered third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-0 in just over an hour.

Petrova will play the winner of the match between Kirsten Flipkens and Roberta Vinci, which was suspended due to rain with Flipkens leading 6-4, 5-4.

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