MADRID, 18 October 2003 — Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco recovered from a nervous start to beat French sixth seed Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 and reach the semifinals of the Madrid Masters Series yesterday.
Grosjean hardly put a foot wrong over the first two sets, serving to devastating effect and dominating the points with his accurate groundstrokes.
The Frenchman set up two break-points in game six of the second but he failed to convert and that save from El Aynaoui signaled a shift in momentum.
El Aynaoui went on to force a tiebreak and moved confidently into a 6-3 lead.
Grosjean saved those three set-points but, serving at 6-7, he missed a fourth as El Aynaoui stepped round to clatter a forehand winner.
El Aynaoui grew in stature over the third set and broke twice to secure victory and set up a semifinal clash with Nicolas Massu of Chile.
Massu came through an exhausting quarterfinal with the Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.
Massu, who beat US Open champion Andy Roddick in the third round on Thursday, clinched victory as Chela smacked a backhand long on the first match-point.
That shot brought an end to a grueling clash between the two South Americans, lasting two hours 57 minutes.
Grosjean’s defeat was a missed opportunity to close in on one of the two remaining places in the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston at the end of the season.
Grosjean is 10th in the ATP Champions Race, still behind Carlos Moya of Spain, David Nalbandian of Argentina and Australia’s Mark Philippoussis in the battle for a top-eight finish.
Henin Through to Swisscom Semi Against Petrova
In Zurich, second seed Justine Henin-Hardenne marched into the semifinals of the Swisscom Challenge yesterday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Russian Vera Zvonareva.
The Belgian world No. 2 moved a step closer to a final showdown with compatriot Kim Clijsters, the world No. 1 and top seed, after a dominant display at the indoor Schluefweg Stadium.
Henin will face another Russian, Nadia Petrova, in the semifinals after the world No. 14 overturned her compatriot Elena Bovina in a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Seventh-seeded Zvonareva, the world No. 12 who lost her only previous encounter with Henin-Hardenne in Berlin earlier this year, was undone by a series of blistering forehand winners.
In the first set, Henin-Hardenne wasted three break points when level at 3-3, but finally got the crucial break at the fourth attempt. The Belgian then saved a break point on her own serve when 5-4 up before going on to claim the set.
She immediately broke Zvonareva in the first game of the second set with one of a number of forehand winners and then held her serve despite strong resistance from her opponent.
Zvonareva handed Henin-Hardenne a second break and a 4-1 lead after a double-fault, but saved two match points when 5-1 down to keep the game alive.
Henin-Hardenne failed with another match point on her own serve as plucky Zvonareva continued to defy her, until a long rally was concluded with yet another forehand that proved too much.
