KEY POINTS:
Tournament favourite Elena Dementieva is the only seed left standing heading into today's semifinals at the ASB Classic.
The top-seeded Russian accounted for Israeli Shahar Peer in comfortable fashion yesterday but the prospect of a rare one v two showdown against Caroline Wozniacki evaporated last night when the
world No 12 was upset by unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina.
Vesnina took the first set 6-3 as a rash of close line calls that went against Wozniacki seemed to have the Dane on the verge of a meltdown.
But she recovered to take the second set 6-0 in a blistering display, breaking the increasingly erratic Vesnina's serve three times.
Vesnina then steadied herself in the final set and games went with serve until a net cord on a rare break point handed Vesnina a 5-3 advantage.
Wozniacki survived one match point but a Vesnina ace set up another and the Russian finished the job with two raking forehands.
Vesnina will take on British No 1 Anne Keothavong, who had taken the first set off Ayumi Morita 6-0 when the Japanese qualifier pulled out with a hamstring injury.
Dementieva swept aside Peer 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour to book a semifinal tie with last year's beaten finalist Aravane Rezai.
Peer was the target of a small handful of anti-war protesters, whose chants could be heard as the match started, but she said it hadn't been a distraction.
"I just heard them at the beginning, the first one or two points. It was fine," she said.
After being in the match at 3-3 Peer lost nine straight games as Dementieva found top gear.
"I played half of the first set good and that was it," Peer said. "Unfortunately I didn't continue the way I was playing at the beginning and she got on top of me."
Getting on top of her opponents is something the Olympic champion and top seed has had little trouble achieving this week.
After a shock start to her first round match when she trailed Yung-Jan Chan 5-1, she has been in scintillating form, erasing Chan, local hope Marina Erakovic and Peer in straight sets.
"It looked easy but it wasn't that easy," Dementieva said.
"I'm sure it was a tough day for her because of the situation in her country. I'm sure it was not easy to play.
"But I was very satisfied with the way I played."
Dementieva, too, was unaffected by the protesters, saying she thought their presence outside the stadium was a positive thing.
"It's great to see that people do care about what is happening around the world."
Dementieva has won both previous encounters with Rezai but she is wary of the hard-hitting Frenchwoman.
"She is in great shape right now and it is going to be a tough match.
"She hits so hard, she is trying to hit every single ball. And hard courts are her favourite surface so it is going to be an interesting match. I need to be ready from the beginning."
Rezai, who dispatched Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-3, 6-2, now boasts a 7-1 record in Auckland. Her only defeat came against Lindsay Davenport in last year's final but she faces a player of similar pedigree today.
"I've played two times against her and lost two times," Rezai said.
"But I think I know her game very well. I don't want to say what I have to do because for sure she is going to see the newspaper. I'll just try to play my tennis. If she is better than me she'll beat me, if not then I'll beat her.
"Tennis is all the time up and down. I'll try to play my best tennis."
