LISBON, Portugal, 17 April 2004 — Marat Safin won a tense final-set tiebreak to beat Spanish fourth seed Tommy Robredo 7-6, 2-6, 7-6 and reach the semifinals of the 748,850-euro Estoril Open yesterday.

Robredo looked to edge a tiring Safin as the third set drew to a close but the Spaniard double-faulted on match-point as he served at 5-6 in the tie-break to hand his opponent victory.

In the top half of the draw, fifth seed Juan Ignacio Chela eased through to the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Frenchman Olivier Patience.

He will take on Florian Mayer after the German qualifier beat Victor Hanescu of Romania in a similarly comfortable 6-4, 6-3 scoreline. The outstanding quarterfinal performance in the women’s draw came from Spain’s Marta Marrero, who overpowered Austrian fifth seed Barbara Schett 6-0, 6-2.

“It was a bit of a surprise to win so easily,” said Marrero, who will go on to face third seed Emilie Loit of France after she beat Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. In the other quarterfinals, Iveta Benesova beat Denisa Chladkova 6-2 6-2 in an all-Czech battle, while France’s Stephanie Cohen-Aloro overcame Martina Sucha of Slovakia 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Blake Reaches Quarterfinals at US Men’s Clay Court

In Houston, fourth-seeded American James Blake advanced to the quarter-finals of the US Men’s Clay Court Championship Thursday night, defeating Italian Davide Sanguinetti 7-5, 6-3. Unseeded Tommy Haas of Germany ousted American Paul Goldstein, 6-4, 6-2, to reach his first quarterfinal since September 2002 at Tashkent.

In other second-round matches Thursday, No. 7 seed Andrei Pavel of Romania ousted Argentina’s Jose Acasuso 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia toppled American Alex Bogomolov 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Venus Eases Into Last Eight, Serena Withdraws

Venus Williams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup Tennis Tournament in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday with a routine 6-4 6-1 win over Switzerland’s Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian.

The fourth-seeded Williams, the highest ranked player left in the tournament after the withdrawal of the top three seeds, wasted little time asserting her authority against the world number 84 to set up a last-eight clash against Vera Zvonereva.

Earlier, Second seed Serena Williams became the latest addition to the casualty list when she was forced to pull out of her match against Spain’s Conchita Martinez due to a sore left knee. It was also a bad day for 2001 champion Jennifer Capriati of the United States after the seventh seed was ousted by Petra Mandula of Hungary 7-6, 3-6, 7-5.

Mandula moves on to a quarterfinal showdown against Jelena Kostanic of Croatia, who defeated Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar 6-3, 6-1 Fifth seeded American Lindsay Davenport continued her run of good form to cruise past Nicole Pratt of Australia 6-1, 6-1.

Davenport won last week’s event at Amelia Island and will now face Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the last eight. Seeded 11, Schnyder upset Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 6-1.In other matches, eighth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova defeated countrywoman Alina Jidkova 6-1, 6-1 while their ninth seeded compatriot Zvonareva defeated Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi of Israel 6-4, 6-0.