JAPAN's Shinobu Asagoe knocked out fifth seed Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to set up a semifinal date with Belarusí wild-card entry Olga Barabanchikova who steam-rolled over giantkiller Galina Fokina of Russia 6-3, 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the Metropolitan Resort and Beach Club last night.

Joining them in the semis and setting up a clash between themselves next were Camille Pin of France, a 6-0, 6-3 winner against Ekaterina Syssoeva (Russia), and Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia who put aside Denmarkís Eva Dyrberg.

Sixth seed Angelique shocked the second seeded Eva 6-2, 6-4 on Court One early in the evening.

Angelique had her job made easy when Eva made costly forehand errors while on the run and close to the net midway through he first set for a 6-2 romp.

The second saw Eva come back strongly, hardly ever going into the serve and volley mode, by holding and breaking for 3-2 and held again in the sixth for 4-2.

On Angeliqueís next serve, Eva slowly picking up in rhythm threatened to walk away with the set. The Dane played brilliantly mixing her stylish backhand with forceful forehands down the flanks.

Angelique is not one to give up till the end normally, as was shown in her great fight-back in the pre-quarters against veteran Habtoor player Laurence Andretto of France.

The Indonesian clung on from 0-30 in the seventh to level and go ahead 40-30 before Eva sent down one of her solid high back-lift forehands for deuce and three more deuces gone through before Angelique managed to reduce the set scores to 4-3.

On serve in the eighth Eva, as her coach mentioned later, seemed unsettled, calling out loudly in frustration. Here, the graceful, fast running Dane lost her focus and was literally broken down in most aspects of the game by Angelique.

The second set was in our bag but Eva who is a great sportswoman and a wonderful person to work with, just lost out in mind to clinch it,î said travelling personal coach Tine Scheuer-Larsen.

Camille was her usual efficient self in her baseline play returning everything and anticipating well which made her job that much easier in her quarters versus a surprisingly erratic Ekaterina.

First set went at love and the second except for a minor hiccup during serve in the fourth, Camille literally strolled into the final four for a date with Angelique.

Belarussian stunner Olga is the leading candidate, as far as player popularity is concerned at the beach complex courts.

Not only does she carry out her court-work with clinical fashion she is also friendly and easy to talk to, anytime she is approached irrespective of who it is.

On her win over giantkiller Galina who stunned top-seed Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus on the opening day, Olga in her good spoken English which she picked up when in London some time back, said: 'I played good today. Playing in windy conditions is something I hate. Galina is a good player but she committed too may errors to stay in the match.'

'Against Asagoe in the semis, I am confident though she manages to return without too many mistakes. Itís going to be a good game, but I am confident of going ahead.'

Galina said: 'The wind was no problem. It was one of my bad days. I did not do a single thing right throughout.'

First set was a cruise for 6-1 for the hard-hitting Minsk girl who at 22 is determined to get back at sub-50 in the world, a status she held before slipping to her current 433 due to injury and a long layoff a year back.

Olga went about her business the same way she did in the first and was 3-0 ahead in the second set with an inspiring show in the third game where she retrieved near impossible balls low down on the baseline corners and near the net to put Galina totally out of place.

In sheer frustration, the left handed Galina even cried out loud ìOh God!î when her usually reliable forehand executed with the quick turn of the wrist deserted her at crucial moments.

Osaka lady Shinobu at 25 is a tenacious player, never willing to give in. She showed that she could trade shot for shot against her seeded opponent.

Klara has the tournamentís best forehand. It is carried out with the minimum of back-lift and goes just inches above the net at terrific speeds which Shinobu countered well by bending down slightly while receiving to take the venom off it.

It was difficult to understand as to how a player with such command in forehands and running ability could lose out but one must understand that Shinobu was a former below-50 player.

'Klara made many mistakes in the first set. The second set, well I took it easy and paid for it. In the third set it was my serve and better mental outlook that helped me beat Klara today. The wind I did not like at all but the cooler evenings for the last two days has helped me conserve my energy,' Shinobu said.

Twenty-year-old Klara enjoying a career best 126 ranking in the world at the moment, had no excuses for her loss: 'Yes, I was getting frustrated but it was you know, I just lost, thereís nothing I can say about it.'

Shinobu led 3-1 with a break and services held in the second but Klara reduced it to 4-3 later before the Japanese went a notch ahead with deep returns for 5-3 on serve and waited till service changed after Klara held for 5-4, to set up a date with Olga.

'I have not seen Olga play but she is good and I say it will be a very good game tomorrow,' Shinobu said.