ZURICH - VENUS Williams remained on course for a strong end to an inconsistent season when the American beat Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Zurich Open on Friday.

Third-seeded Williams has won just one title this season - albeit at Wimbledon - and is still looking to gain enough points this week to join younger sister Serena at the season-ending WTA Championships.

Following the second round exits of her nearest rivals fr a place, Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska, the former world number one took another big step towards the Doha finale by maintaining her perfect record against the world number 23.

The American finally found her rhythm when it counted, serving out to love to end the sequence and seal the set.

The second set was much more convincing with Williams varying her play nicely to break her opponent twice and take a 4-1 lead.

Schiavone, who had lost all four of her previous encounters with Williams, briefly threatened to fight back after grabbing a break to make the score 4-2 but she slipped up again while serving to stay in the match at 5-3 down.

Back and forth

'There were definitely some back and forth games today but I think overall I played more consistently than in the last rounds,' Williams said.

'My main goal was just to keep my own errors down and that always makes it harder for my opponents'.

'I'm not counting the points (for Doha). I will just do my best this week and that's it.'

Williams will now meet the winner of Friday's last quarter-final match between Serbian second seed Ana Ivanovic and Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova.

Saturday's other semi-final will involve two unseeded players with Italy's Flavia Pennetta taking on Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Pennetta, who beat world number one Jelena Jankovic in the second round, saw off Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 7-5 6-2 in the quarter-finals.

Garrigues benefited from a shoulder injury sustained by her Belarussian opponent Victoria Azarenka who won the first set 6-4 but retired after losing the second 6-3. -- REUTERS

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