Virginie Razzano's luck finally ran out in the last quarter-final of the Auckland international tournament last night.
The French qualifier had battled enough lurgies to keep surgery in business since arriving late last week.
But when her back seized up at 1-0 down to Russian fifth seed VeraZvonareva it was the end for the 23-year-old from Nimes.
Razzano took a treatment break but one more game was all she could manage, losing to Zvonareva 7-5, 2-0.
The Russian now faces American Jill Craybas today as one of only two seeds to make it to the ASB Classic semifinals, the other being top seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic.
Razzano went toe to toe with Zvonareva through the first set. Both players treated the net like the flu and stuck to the baseline.
Zvonareva got the crucial break at 6-5, served out for the set and it was over soon after as Razzano, who arrived with a sore throat and had stomach pains one day, had her back lock up on another, called it quits.
Zvonareva, who has five singles titles to her credit, including two at Birmingham and Cincinnati last year, is world No 24 and on track to make a decent start in her bid to regain her career high ranking of 11 in 2004.
She was the beaten finalist in Auckland last year and although she admitted she was not at the top of her game last night, she's in reasonable shape.
"I was really happy the way I hung in there. Maybe it was not my best tennis but it was more important to fight for every point," she said.
Greece's Eleni Daniilidou had some small compensation for losing her quarter-final to Jankovic when she teamed with German Jasmin Woehr to beat Jankovic and Slovenia's Tina Krizan 6-2 6-3 and make today's semifinals.
Order of play today
Centre court, from noon:
1-J. Jankovic (Serbia) v C. Pin (France), followed by 5-V. Zvonareva (Russia) v J. Craybas (US) followed by J. Husarova (Slovakia)/P. Suarez (Argentina) v E. Daniilidou (Greece)/J. Woehr (Germany)
