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Safin sets up semi against Stakhovsky

Marat Safin advanced to his first semi-final in 23 events by beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-0, 7-6 (4) in the St Petersburg Open quarter-finals on Friday.

The two-time champion from Russia, ranked 77th, last played in a semi-finals at the Kremlin Cup a year ago.

On Saturday, Safin was to play Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky, who beat German veteran Bjorn Phau 6-2, 7-5. Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn upset second-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6) to set up the other semi against the last surviving seed, Horacio Zeballos. The Argentine defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (8), 6-4.

Safin won the first eight games to lead by a set and 2-0, but world No. 101 Istomin broke back to make it 3-3. Safin broke again for 5-4 with a precise cross-court return, but played sloppy while serving for the match and sent it to a tiebreaker.

Istomin netted a backhand slice on match point.

Safin, the two-time Grand Slam champion, is playing out his last season on the ATP Tour, and said he would enter his last competitive tournament — the Paris Masters — on a wild card.

The former No. 1 has won 15 titles in his career, his last at the 2005 Australian Open. He reached two previous quarter-finals this season but went no further.

The 93rd-ranked Stakhovsky was to appear in his second career semi-final.



■VIENNA OPEN

AFP, VIENNA

Marin Cilic continued to build on his momentum from a final this month in Asia, with the Croatian top seed easing into the semi-finals of the Austria Tennis Trophy 6-1, 6-4 over former champion Feliciano Lopez on Friday.

The Croatian, who won the Chennai title to start the season, is not alone in his quest. Also still alive in the race are second seed Radek Stepanek, 14th in the London sprint, and provisional No. 16 Frenchman Gael Monfils.

But both of those contenders went down to defeats, second seed Stepanek losing a chance to improve with his 6-2, 6-2 quarter-final loss to Austrian seventh seed Jurgen Melzer. It was a similar fate for Monfils, who forced a third set against on-form Serb Janko Tipsarevic, but ended up on the short end of the scoreline 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 6-3.



■VIENNA OPEN

AP, LYON, FRANCE

Arnaud Clement saved a match point and fought against 27 aces in ousting top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (8) to reach the Lyon Grand Prix semi-finals on Friday.

Ivan Ljubicic, the 2001 champ, beat Florent Serra of France 7-6 (6), 6-2, serving 16 aces and breaking his opponent twice in the second set. The big-serving Ljubicic will play his first semi-final since May last year at Poertschach, Austria.

Second-seeded Gilles Simon retained a slight chance of qualifying for next month’s ATP World Tour Finals in London by beating last year’s runner-up, fifth-seeded Julien Benneteau 7-6 (5), 6-3.
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