By ALLON SINAI
Shahar Pe'er will face world number 12 Marion Bartoli for a place in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday.
The 22-year-old Israeli defeated Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1, 7-6 (4) in her Group A opener on Thursday, and a victory over Bartoli, who beat Rybarikova on Wednesday, will see her finish first in the group and advance to Saturday's semis.
"I think I played very smart today. I did the right things," Pe'er said. "I was serving well, returning pretty well, I was solid. I failed to win most of the games when I was a little bit too defensive, but the rest of the match I was pretty aggressive and used most of the court."
Meanwhile, 10th-seeded Aravane Rezai of France defeated Melinda Czink of Hungary on Thursday to secure a berth in the semifinals.
Rezai, who upset fourth-seeded Sabine Lisicki in the opening match Wednesday, recorded a 6-3, 7-5 victory over the eighth-seeded Czink in Group D of the round-robin stage.
Also Thursday, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain beat Hungary's Agnes Szavay 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in Group B and Japan's Kimiko Date Krumm defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 6-3.
The tournament features the top 10 women who won a WTA Tour event this season but didn't qualify for last week's WTA championships in Doha, Qatar - along with two wild cards.
The 12 players are divided into four groups, with a round-robin stage before the semifinals.
AP contributed to this report.
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