Maria Sharapova’s homeland pro tournament debut ended badly Friday when she lost in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup to Dinara Safina 1-6, 6-4, 7-5.

The world’s top-ranked player trailed 1-5 in the third set and saved a match point in the seventh game against Safina. She rallied to 5-5 and saved another match point on her serve in the 12th game before a wide shot ended the contest.

“At the decisive moment, I just missed my chance,” she said.

Sharapova struggled to even make it to the quarters. She trailed Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 1-6, 2-4 Wednesday before Groenefeld withdrew with an ankle injury.

Safina, the younger sister of Russian Marat Safin, lost the first set in 31 minutes. She won a decisive break in the 10th game of the second set and admitted she did not take advantage of her 5-1 lead in the third.

“I played softly on a match point and then waited for her mistakes,” Safina said. “I was almost crying. And at 5-5, I began to attack myself.”

In Saturday’s semifinal, Safina will play third-seeded Mary Pierce, who came back from 0-6 down in a third-set tiebreaker to beat Russia’s Elena Likhovtseva 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (6).

“I think I was 6-2 down once and won, but never from 6-0,” Pierce said.

In another quarterfinal, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone needed only 55 minutes to beat eighth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-3, 6-1. Schiavone will play fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, who defeated compatriot Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-3.

The match between Pierce and Likhovtseva lasted 3 hours, 13 minutes. In the tiebreaker, the Russian was one point away from her first Kremlin Cup semifinal appearance in 10 attempts when she faltered.

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“She started to play short and I received easy balls,” Pierce said. “If she played in the match the way she played a tiebreaker, I could have won the match 6-0, 6-0.

“Maybe she was waiting for my mistake. But I just capitalized on those opportunities she gave me.”

The Frenchwoman saved five match points and won both her serves, prevailing when Likhovtseva’s return from a Pierce forehand went wide. The Russian left the court in tears.

Likhovtseva broke Pierce in the first set to lead 3-1, but the Frenchwoman leveled in the sixth game and broke Likhovtseva in the 12th.

Pierce saved five break points in the opening game of the second set before sending a volley wide. She immediately broke back and won two more games, but Likhovtseva leveled at 4-4 and had a decisive break in the ninth game.

After trading breaks midway through the third set, Pierce saved a break point in the 11th game and Likhovtseva held serve to force the tiebreaker.

In the men’s quarterfinals, sixth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer upset fourth-seeded Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-4. He’ll face qualifier Igor Kunitsyn, who beat Andrei Pavel 6-3, 6-2.

In an all-Russian semifinal, seventh-seeded Igor Andreev will play wild-card Dmitry Tursunov, who rallied to upset third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Petrova advances to Thai Open semis
Top-seeded Nadia Petrova improved her chances to win a WTA tournament for the first time with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over French qualifier Stephanie Foretz in the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Russian player will face Italian Antonella Serra Zanetti. She advanced to the semifinals by ousting eighth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Second-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic also breezed through to the semis, thrashing former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez of Spain 6-3, 6-0 in a rain-interrupted match.

The 16-year-old Vaidisova used her power game to beat Martinez, 33, and extend her winning streak to 13 matches. Vaidisova will face third-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina, who beat Meng Yuan of China 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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Vaidisova had expected a tougher match against Martinez, and felt she breezed through by playing well from the start.

Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova routed former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez 6-3, 6-0 to advance to the Thailand Open semifinals in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 16-year-old used her power game to beat the 33-year-old Martinez and extended her winning streak to 13 matches. Play was delayed 2 hours because of rain.

The second-seeded Vaidisova will face third-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina, who beat China’s Meng Yuan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Italy’s Antonella Serra Zanetti also needed three sets to defeat eighth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Top-seeded Nalbandian ousted
Top-seeded David Nalbandian and defending champion Feliciano Lopez were ousted from the quarterfinals in the BA-CA Trophy in Vienna, Austria.

Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero beat Argentine Nalbandian 7-6 (5), 6-3. Third-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic topped Lopez of Spain 7-6 (8), 7-6 (5).

Ferrero and Nalbandian exchanged breaks early in the first set until the Spaniard broke again and then closed it out on serve. Nalbandian broke and lead 2-1 in the second set, but Ferrero won four straight games to decide the match.