Los Angeles, Aug 11: Top seed Kim Clijsters moved a step closer to becoming the world's number one-ranked player when she battled past Italy's Francesca Schiavone 7-5 6-4 in the semi-finals of the JP Morgan Chase Open yesterday.

The 20-year-old Belgian will face second seed Lindsay Davenport in today's final after the American had earlier trounced Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-2 6-1.
Should she beat Davenport, Clijsters will become the first player to attain the number one ranking without winning a grand slam title since the WTA tour introduced the system in 1975.
''The chance of becoming number one should motivate me a little more tomorrow,'' said Clijsters, who has won six titles this season and reached at least the semi-finals of all 16 tournaments she has played in.
''I've had a great year so far and made it through to another final. It would be nice if I could win, but I'll have to play my best tennis,'' Clijsters said.



On a windy night, Clijsters struggled with her control against the 16th seed, who played an extremely aggressive and ambitious match.



Despite falling a break behind in both sets, Clijsters raised her game when it mattered, mixing top-spin lobs with groundstrokes to the corners.



Schiavone attempted to serve herself into a tiebreaker in the first set, but Clijsters broke to win the set when she forced a forehand error.



Trailing 2-4 in the second set, the Belgian held serve and then levelled the scores by breaking Schiavone with a delightful lob that the Italian couldn't reach.


Bureau Report