Serena survives Ivanovic scare while Nadal slips

Women's World No.1 Serena Williams battled back from the brink of defeat to survive a big scare against No.9 Ana Ivanovic, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open.

Williams broke serve in the first game of the match, but her momentum didn't last long. Ivanovic came roaring back and eventually found herself up a set and a break after an hour on court. She dropped that second set, but the hard-hitting Serb jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third.

But the No.1-seeded Williams came alive from there, reeling off six games in a row to put the No.6-seeded Ivanovic away. Ivanovic hit her 11th double fault of the match on match point.

"I did a Serena," Williams beamed in her on-court interview after the match. In another shocker, Feliciano Lopez stormed into the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters after defeating fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a well-fought two-and-a-half hour match. Nadal had to work hard to win the first set from Lopez who switched gears to take the second, serving six aces and no double faults on Thursday, reports Efe.

The third set was closely fought with each player holding on to his serve. With the match poised at 6-6, Lopez seized the advantage in the tiebreaker and with it the match, to hand Nadal a stunning defeat.