Serena Williams Squeaks into Madrid Semifinals

Top-ranked Serena Williams outlasted Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 0-6, 7-5 to reach the Madrid Open semifinals on Friday.

Williams appeared to wear down against the scrappy Spaniard on the red clay court, and after getting blanked in the second set she fell behind 4-2 in the decider.

But the defending champion rallied back to break Medina Garrigues' serve twice to move on.

Second-seeded Maria Sharapova played Kaia Kanepi in a late quarterfinal at the Caja Magica.

Williams' entertaining match against an opponent she had rightly described as a "grinder" the day before took several momentum swings.

The 63rd-ranked Medina Garrigues has 10 career clay-court titles — the most of any active player — and her footwork and hustle against Williams showed why.

Williams was ahead 2-0 in the third set and with two break chances to take firm control of the match, but Medina Garrigues ran off four straight points to hold serve and soon enough the upset looked to be in the works.

But Williams regained control of her groundstrokes and a deep drive forced Medina Garrigues into erring her return to cede her serve.

The American favorite then used another deep drive to break Medina Garrigues again before holding serve to love to close out the match.

Williams improved her record to 29 wins and two losses on the year.