WTA Portugal Open: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beats fellow Russian Elena Vesnina to secure her place in the semi-finals

Third seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova advanced to the semi-finals in Oeiras after a battling win over Elena Vesnina.

It looked to be plain sailing for the world number 19 after she secured the opening set 6-3 but her fellow Russian was not giving up and took the second on a tie-break.

The third also went to a breaker, but this time Pavlyuchenkova was to get the upper hand to close out a 6-3 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/3) win.

She will face Romina Oprandi next after the Swiss player shocked former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Kuznetsova has slipped to 45 in the world and Oprandi made short work of her more illustrious opponent as she clinched to a 6-2 6-2 victory.

The other semi-final will be between defending champion Kaia Kanepi and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain after both claimed straight-sets wins on Thursday.

Suarez Navarro was a 6-2 6-4 winner against Monica Puig while Kanepi saw off Ayumi Morita 6-4 6-3.