AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. (AP) _ Top-seeded Nadia Petrova easily advanced to the semifinals of the Bausch & Lomb Championships on Friday, while second-seeded Patty Schnyder dropped out of the clay-court event.

Petrova, No. 7 in the world, beat Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3, 6-0, and fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia routed Schnyder 6-3, 6-1.

Petrova won the final nine games and lost only nine points in the second set.

``I was prepared for a long match today,'' said Petrova, who also played doubles Friday. ``The less time I had to spend on court, the better. I was trying to make the points shorter and save some energy.''

Kuznetsova is ranked 10th, a spot behind Schnyder.

After splitting the first four games, Kuznetsova won four of the next five games to take the first set and won the first five games of the second set.

``She played great today and from the start I was not there,'' Schnyder said. ``I couldn't feel the ball as well as I would like to. I was not happy with the strings at all. I couldn't get the racket strung the way I wanted it.''

Kuznetsova, who utilizes a power game, said it took several games for her to get use to Schnyder's play because she's a left-handed player.

``She can put the ball in places where it makes you uncomfortable,'' Kuznetsova said. ``I tried to make her game, my game. We've played a couple times in the past, but you never know what to expect with her. I'm just happy with the way I played today and with the results.''

In the semifinals, Petrova will play the winner of a late match between American Jill Craybas and 15th-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, while Kuznetsova will face third-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy. Schiavone beat seventh-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-2, 6-3.