French second seed Richard Gasquet defeated Daniel Munoz-de la Nava 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Estoril Open, as he plays his first clay event of the season.
Gasquet, who lost the 2007 final to Novak Djokovic on his last visit to Estoril, beat the lowest-ranked player remaining in the field in No. 148 de la Nava.
He now faces another Spaniard, Albert Ramos, the fourth seed who saw off local favorite Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-3.
Photo: AFP
“He had nothing to lose,” said Gasquet, who was proud of finding his own fighting qualities so early in the current clay campaign. “We played a tough first set, it lasted more than an hour.
“It was a good win for me, but it was not an easy one. I concentrated well in the second set after playing a very good tie-break.
“I had to fight a lot but that is what you have to do on clay and this was good experience. I hope to keep it up in the semi-finals.”
Top-seeded holder Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina will face Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka in the second semi-final.
Del Potro accounted for 2009-2010 winner Albert Montanes, the Spanish seventh seed, 6-2, 6-2.
Third seed Wawrinka beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-1, 6-4 as windy and rainy conditions from earlier in the week in this valley with its own micro-climate calmed considerably for the business end of the event.
Del Potro is competing on clay in an ATP event for the first time this season, though he did win a pair of Davis Cup rubbers last month in Argentina’s victory over Croatia in Buenos Aires.
“This tournament is very important for me,” the 2009 US Open champion said. “It is the start of my clay season and I want to do as well as possible here. I need to keep the form that I have and improve the rest of my game. There are a lot of important tournaments coming up before the French Open.”
Wawrinka is level 2-all with del Potro, with the South American winning their last two matches played three years ago.
In the Saturday women’s final, Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, the sixth seed, will take on Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.
Both of the winners knocked out Italian competition, with Kanepi upsetting top seed Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-5 and Suarez Navarro ousting Karin Knapp 6-4, 6-0.
BMW OPEN
AP, MUNICH
German veteran Tommy Haas beat eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) to reach the last four of the BMW Open on Friday, his first ATP semi-final since August 2009.
Haas, the 2000 finalist who received a wild card into the clay-court tournament, served his sixth ace to end the match. The 34-year-old German was once ranked as high as No. 2, but has dropped to No. 134.
He will next face third-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat 2010 champion Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-3, 6-7 (8/6), 6-3.
Second-seeded Fernando Lopez of Spain served 14 aces to cruise past fifth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 6-2 and set up a semi-final against Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.
The fourth-seeded German defeated another Australian, qualifier Marinko Matosevic, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5).
Both Australians were in their first career quarter-finals on clay, Matosevic in his first tournament on the surface.
SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Top-seeded Pablo Andujar of Spain, Andreas Seppi of Italy and David Nalbandian of Argentina reached the semi-finals of the Serbia Open tournament on Friday.
France’s Benoit Paire also advanced to the last four after beating third-seeded Jarkko Nieminen from Finland 0-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Nieminen was playing his second match of the day, having beaten Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, in a second-round match that was postponed on Thursday at 5-3 because of rain.
Andujar defeated Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3 and will face Paire on Saturday.
Second-seeded Seppi beat eighth-seeded Gilles Muller from Luxembourg 6-4, 6-3, never losing serve and breaking his opponent three times.
Seppi will face Nalbandian, who easily defeated unseeded Joao Souza 6-3, 6-2 in just 72 minutes.
BUDAPEST GRAND PRIX
AP, BUDAPEST
Top-seeded Sara Errani of Italy will meet unseeded Elena Vesnina of Russia in the Budapest Grand Prix final after straight-sets victories on Friday.
Errani beat Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 6-1 for her 14th successive win on clay, and Vesnina eliminated fifth-seeded Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-2, 6-4 in the other semi-final at Romai Tennis Academy.
“Anna played a good match, she played strong, but maybe she was a bit tired after the long match she had yesterday,” Errani said.
Tatishvili took two-and-a-half hours to beat Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada on Thursday.
Errani reached her eighth career WTA final. She has won four finals.
The final will be the sixth for Vesnina, who has yet to win a title.
“Marina was trying to exploit my mistakes,” Vesnina said. “She was trying to move me around and play the spin. I didn’t expect that, but then I found the key to win today.”
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