Both opponents retired from their respective matches, Clijsters with a right ankle sprain in the third set of their semifinal and Henin from gastroenteritis in the final.

She defeated Anastasia Myskina in a quarterfinal and Maria Sharapova in a semifinal, and then came back to defeat Henin in the final.

She defeated the defending champion, Serena Williams, in a controversial semifinal 6 – 2, 4 – 6, 7 – 5 which saw Henin failing to acknowledge her raised hand during Williams service motion, a breach in tennis etiquette.

Henin reached the gold medal match by defeating reigning French Open champion Anastasia Myskina in a semifinal 7 – 5, 5 – 7, 8 – 6 after having trailed 1 – 5 in the final set.

Henin next played the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she reached the final after beating Mauresmo in a semifinal before losing to Clijsters in straight sets.

Henin was criticized by the press because she had stated after her semifinal win against Sharapova that she was at the " peak of her fitness " and was playing the " best tennis of her life ".

Three weeks later, Henin played the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open, defeating Mauresmo in a semifinal 6 – 1, 6 – 2 before losing to Petrova in a three-set final.

Later, at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, Henin won her quarterfinal against Jelena Janković 3 – 6, 6 – 4, 6 – 4 after being behind 4 – 0 in the third set, only to lose her semifinal against Kuznetsova 6 – 4, 5 – 7, 6 – 4.

Seeded 6th, Capriati reached the semifinal, where she faced second seeded Justine Henin.

Capriati did not play again until the WTA Tour Championships where she lost in the semifinal to World No. 1 Justine Henin

She lost in the 2004 Athens Olympics semifinal to Justine Henin, having led 5 – 1 in the final set.

She defeated Justine Henin in the semifinal of the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, 1 – 6, 7 – 5, 6 – 1, Jelena Janković in the fourth round of the 2009 Australian Open, 6 – 1, 6 – 4 and Victoria Azarenka 6 – 3, 6 – 3 in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open.

In her first Grand Slam semifinal, Bartoli came from behind to stun top-seeded Justine Henin, 1 – 6, 7 – 5, 6 – 1, in one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history.

Two months later, Hewitt again lost to Federer in the US Open semifinal, although this time he was able to take one set from the Swiss.

Davenport started 1998 by reaching the singles semifinals of the Australian Open, which was her second consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinal.

He qualified for the 2011 World Championship in South Korea and reached the semifinal where he ended last timewise, he was 14th in the first round, his personal best at 400m would have given him 5th place in the finals.

The team was just as dominant in the playoffs, rolling through the Western Conference with a record of 11 – 1, including consecutive four-game sweeps of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinal series and the Portland Trailblazers in the Western Conference Finals.

He made it to the semifinal round, where he was eliminated.

He provided voice-overs and narration during the intro of 1st semifinal of Eurovision Song Contest 2009, and the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and was also one of the Olympic flag bearers.

It was the continuation of a bitter feud between the two, dating back at least to their 1974 Candidates semifinal match in which Petrosian withdrew after five games while trailing 3. 5 – 1. 5 (+ 3 − 1 = 1 ).

The semifinal was against Turkey, which Brazil had faced in their group.

In the French Open final, Graf defeated Navratilova, who was the World No. 1, 6 – 4, 4 – 6, 8 – 6 after beating Gabriela Sabatini in a three-set semifinal.

Her 6 – 3, 6 – 0 defeat of Gabriela Sabatini in a semifinal was described by veteran observer Ted Tinling as " probably the best tennis I've seen ".

She then won her eighth German Open, but there were signs that her form was worsening as she almost lost to Julie Halard in a quarterfinal. Back-to-back losses followed ; Graf lost to Mary Pierce in a French Open semifinal, 6 – 2, 6 – 2, and followed that with a first-round straight-sets loss at Wimbledon to Lori McNeil, her first loss in a first round Grand Slam tournament in ten years.

But in the hours that followed that semifinal victory, Muster was struck by a drunk driver, severing ligaments in his left knee and forcing him to default the final.

At Wimbledon in 2008, her average first serve speed was in the quarterfinal, in the semifinal, and in the final.

After a mildly irregular season in 2001 — the biggest achievement was a Libertadores Cup semifinal against Boca Juniors — the club faced its worst year ever in 2002 and was relegated to the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, which it won in the following year, returning to the First Division in 2004.

A low point in Connors ' career occurred on February 21, 1986, when he was defaulted trailing 2-5 in the fifth set of a semifinal match against Lendl at the Lipton International Players Championships in Boca Raton, Florida after being angered by the officiating.

In 1996 – 97, Neuville played in Spain with CD Tenerife, where he was part of a well-balanced offensive line that also featured Juanele ( eight goals ), Meho Kodro ( six ), Antonio Pinilla ( seven ) and Aurelio Vidmar ( one ), scoring five goals in 1, 885 minutes as the Canary Islands side easily retained its La Liga status, and also playing a relatively important part in the club's UEFA Cup semifinal run.

His hardest match was a marathon 90-game semifinal against Roche at the Australian Open under tropical hot conditions.

On the other hand, Gonzales was still a top ten player when this match occurred and Laver subsequently won this event, beating Gonzales in a straight sets semifinal.

The streak was broken on May 12, 1979, in a semifinal of the Italian Open, when Evert lost to Tracy Austin 6 – 4, 2 – 6, 7 – 6 ( 4 ) after Evert lost a game point to go up 5 – 2 in the third set.

Despite guiding Chelsea to second position in the Premiership ( their highest league finish for half a century ) and to their first ever Champions League or European Cup semifinal, Claudio Ranieri was sacked after four years in charge at Stamford Bridge.

This was the first time in the open era that a female had lost two sets at love in a US Open semifinal.

Her German Open victory, her first win at a Tier I tournament, was noteworthy as she beat Jennifer Capriati in a semifinal and Serena Williams in the final, the then number two and number five ranked players, respectively.

He then defeated 20th-ranked McEnroe in a four-set semifinal to set up a final with fourth-ranked Agassi.

After the semifinal game, Baltimore ended up defeating the favored Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Winnipeg Stadium 14 – 12 to become the first ( and only ) American and expansion team to make it to the Grey Cup.

Once again, the Wings were paired up with their arch-rival Bandits in the semifinal round, and the Wings dispatched the Bandits just as they had in the previous semifinal matchup.

The Rock and the Wings did not disappoint, with the Rock going 11-3 and the Wings 10-4 in the regular season, and winning their semifinal games to set up a third straight postseason matchup in Toronto, this time with the title on the line.

They won the conference semifinal over the Los Angeles Avengers 52 – 45, but ended up losing the American Conference Championship Game to the eventual ArenaBowl XIX Champion Colorado Crush in overtime, with a final score of 49 – 43.

The news that star league recruit Wendell Sailor had tested positive to an illegal substance and thus faced a career ending ban from the game was an unwelcome intrusion on the Waratahs semifinal build up.

They finished 5th in the Sunday League – up from 14 in 1987 – and reached the semifinal of the Benson & Hedges Cup.

In the semifinal, she fell behind early, and while she managed to make it close, could not catch all the way up.

This thus left open the possibility that the Winners ' Bracket champion would pick up a loss, albeit in the Losers ' Bracket semifinal.

Had he been able to repeat this performance in the second round, he would have made the semifinal, but he could not, and ended up in 23rd place.

Boukpeti struggled in the semifinal, going fast enough to make the final, but hitting three gates to pick up 6 penalty points.

Mouhssin Chehibi in the men's 800 metres did very well to set a personal best in the semifinal, and made a strong finishing kick to move up from 6th to 4th in the closing metres of the final.

On 17 February 2007, Therese, featuring The Attic, ended up in 7th place in Melodifestivalen's semifinal, but did not qualify any further in the contest.

This dropped him significantly in the rankings, as he was unable to back up his semifinal performance at the Australian Open the year before.

In order to win the Division 1 CCS baseball team, the No. 3 seeded Vikings faced a fierce lineup, including a semifinal match up with the private Catholic powerhouse Archbishop Mitty, a game they won, 5-2.

Serbia-Montenegro ended up progressing to semifinal where it lost on penalites to Ukraine.

Monaco and Lise ended up 24th out of 25 countries in the semifinal, therefore placing 38th out of 39 total countries, beating only Lithuania.

Despite this, he became the winner of his group ( group B ), and set up a semifinal clash with US Open champion Juan Martín del Potro who defeated him 6 – 7 ( 1 ), 6 – 3, 7 – 6 ( 3 ).

Despite often scoring the opening goal, Örebro SK entered into three long losing streaks and ended up in a disappointing 12th spot of allsvenskan, an early exit from the Europa League qualification campaign ( against Sarajevo ) and finally losing the semifinal of the national cup ( against cup and league champions Helsingborgs IF ).

In the semifinal against West Germany, Nacka scored his first and only goal for Sweden in the 3-1 win which set them up for the classic final against Brazil.

In his first round match he defeated Morgan to set up a semifinal match against Anderson.

This put the Nicaraguans in fourth place for the preliminary round, setting up a semifinal match against Cuba.