Shahar Peer's clay court season got off to a flying start with two victories over top 10 players as she reached the semi-finals of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

Following a four-week break from the WTA circuit, Peer played some of the most impressive tennis of her career as she beat the world No. 8 Agnieska Radwanska of Poland in three sets. She followed it up with an even more impressive straight sets win over No. 3 Dinara Safina of Russia in the quarter final.

But there were no celebrations on Peer's 23rd birthday on Friday as she was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Belgium's Justine Henin in the semi-final.

Her good run did not prevent her from slipping a place to 21 in the world rankings. Peer is playing in the Italian Open in Rome this week where she easily beat local favourite Corinna Dentoni (184) 6-2, 6-1 in the first round.

Dudi Sela also had a good week, winning the Rhodes Challenger tournament with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Rainer Schuettler (75) of Germany.

The win saw the Israeli rise to 58 in the ATP rankings. Sela and Schuettler are the top two seeds at this week's Israel Open Challenger tournament at Ramat Hasharon.