Belgium's Kim Clijsters's return from a long injury lay-off came to a shuddering halt at the hands of Venus Williams here on Friday when the American won their Antwerp quarter-final clash 6-2, 6-3. Clijsters, the former world number one whose ranking has slumped after a wrist injury kept her out of action since October, was the defending champion here but was outclassed by Williams. A solid Williams raced through the first set and the early stages of the second to lead 5-2 before she wasted two match points on the Belgian's serve.

But there was no coming back for Clijsters in the next game with Williams wrapping up the tie to move into the last four where she will face French Open winner Anastasia Myskina of Russia who beat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.

"Venus will always make extra demands and I'm just not ready for that right now," admitted Clijsters.

"However, I don't think the lack of competition is the main reason for my defeat. The way Venus was playing, there wasn't much I could do. I kept on trying, but the balls kept on coming back - most of the time twice as hard too."

Despite her defeat, Clijsters still regards her tournament as being successful. "I started with no expectations," she said. "I only hoped for my wrist to keep up and it did, that's probably the most positive feeling I will have of this week."

Top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France beat Patty Schnyder 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a last four clash with Australia's Alicia Molik who knocked out Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic winning 6-3, 6-4.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005