Israel's
Shahar Peer ignored a third day of protests
from pro-Palestinian demonstrators to beat Maria Kirilenko 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 on Thursday and reach the semifinals of the ASB tennis Classic.
Police, acting on a noise complaint from tournament organizers, made five arrests as about 20 demonstrators chanted and blew whistles outside the downtown Auckland tennis stadium during Peer's quarterfinal match.
The New Zealand group Global Peace and Justice has timed protests to coincide with Peer's three matches at the Auckland tournament so far. One arrest was made at a particularly noisy protest Wednesday and those arrested Thursday included protest group leader John Minto.
Peer once again seemed unaffected by the protests: she rushed through the first set in only 23 minutes with service breaks in the first, third and fifth games.
Kirilenko seemed more distracted than Peer by the noise outside the courts in the first set, but settled down in the second set, gaining the only service break in the fourth game.
Peer re-established her dominance in the third set, breaking Kirilenko in the second and sixth games and clinching victory with an ace on match point.
"I'm very happy to win this match," Peer said. "I'm in good shape and this is just the beginning. I'm feeling well and just hope to go as far as I can."
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