Intro:

Wins for Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber, Li Na and Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals of the women's Cincinnati Masters in Ohio, USA, on Friday.

Serena Williams and the tournament's top seed Agnieszka Radwanska were among the losers.

Script:

In the first quarter final at the Cincinnati Masters Venus Williams took on third seed Samatha Stosur of Australia.

Venus held the advantage winning four of their five career meetings and looked to be putting her recent health issues behind her as she took the first set comfortably 6-2.

Stosur battled away to take the second set on a tiebreaker 7-6 (2).

Venus won the third set 6-4 to reach her first semi final in 2012.

Her sister, Serena, came into her quarter final on the back of 19 consecutive victories which included a Wimbledon title and a gold medal at the London Olympics.

Her opponent was the fifth seeded German, Angelique Kerber, who seemed not to be over awed by her opponent's recent record as she held her nerve and won the match in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 to knock Serena out of the tournament.

Due to a rain delay, China's Li Na was forced to play her second match of the day when she faced the top seed Agnieszka Radwanska in their quarter final.

The 2011 French Open winner first defeated Sweden's Johanna Larsson 6-2, 6-2 before taking on Radwanska.

Na won the match comfortably in 70 minutes 6-1, 6-1 to set up a show down against Venus Williams.

Fourth seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova contested the last quarterfinal with the winner taking on Kerber in the semis.

Kvitova with eight career titles showed her experience on the big stage winning 6-3, 7-6 (4).
The semi-finals get underway on Saturday the 18th of August.