Venus Williams, Patty Schnyder into Bangalore Open semifinals

Second-seeded Venus Williams cruised past Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 6-3 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the WTA's Bangalore Open.

Williams was joined in the last four by fourth-seeded Patty Schnyder, who faced a stronger challenge before downing Akgul Amanmurdova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1).

Williams raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set, but Zvonareva responded with two breaks of her own to square the set before the American broke in the 10th and final game.

In the second set, Williams forced two breaks while dropping serve once in claiming victory over her Russian opponent.

"It was difficult to play Venus today and the altitude too did not …