French Open finalist Samantha Stosur of Australia made the semifinals of the Eastbourne International on Thursday with a comeback win 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0 over British Elena Baltacha. ' Baltacha was the first woman from the host to play in the last eight of the pre-Wimbledon event since Jo Durie in 1983.

In other matches, world number nine and fifth seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium was beaten by unseeded Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Clijsters steamed through her first two matches of the week, losing a total of three games before Azarenka brought the US Open winner back down to earth.

"I was up 4-2 in the second set but a couple of double faults and some good returns from her pushed me back quickly from there," said Clijsters, "I wasn't able to dictate and she took risks on her second serve."

Azarenka will next play Marion Bartoli after the French eighth seed reached the semis for the fourth year running with a 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Spain's Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez.

Stosur, who made the title match against Francesca Schiavone at Roland Garros, fired 15 aces in claiming victory in just over two hours, and will play unseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova who defeated 2009 French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 7-5.