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Russian tennis sensation Vera Zvonareva - Source: Getty Images -
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Russian Vera Zvonareva reached the semi-finals of the US Open for the first time when she beat Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-3 7-5 today.
The seventh seed, who reached the final at Wimbledon in July and is the last Russian woman left standing in New York, was too consistent for 31st seed Kanepi and wrapped up victory in one hour, 53 minutes.
Kanepi had beaten fourth seed Jelena Jankovic on her way to the last eight but looked nervous early on, double-faulting six times and hitting 25 unforced errors in the first set alone.
When Kanepi did find her range, she had the power to cause Zvonareva problems but the tall Estonian had more trouble than the Russian in coping with the stiff breeze that blew across Arthur Ashe Stadium.
After trading breaks to start the second set, Zvonareva moved ahead 4-2 but Kanepi broke back to level at 4-4.
Kanepi had a chance to break back with the score at 5-5 but Zvonareva held and broke her opponent in the next game to win the match and set up a last-four meeting with number one seed Caroline Wozniacki or unseeded Dominika Cibulkova.
