Ferrer beats Sijsling to reach Unicef Open semis

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands – David Ferrer routed Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-1 on Thursday to reach the Unicef Open semifinals.

The top-seeded Spaniard needed just 43 minutes to advance and next plays Frenchman Benoit Paire, who beat Ito Tatsuma of Japan 6-3, 7-5. Sijsling won only one game in front of his home crowd at the grass-court tournament.

Philipp Petzschner of Germany and Xavier Malisse of Belgium will meet in the other semifinal match.

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

It was Clijsters' third win of the tournament, providing a boost after she had been sidelined most of the season due to injuries. She next plays Urszula Radwanska of Poland, who defeated Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, 6-2, 7-6 (3).

Clijsters will play in Wimbledon, but is unseeded at the Grand Slam tournament that 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.

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.