STOCKHOLM, 30 October 2004 — Top seed Andre Agassi marched into the Stockholm Open semifinals yesterday, beating Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco 7-6, 6-2 in his hardest match of the tournament.
Second seed Joachim Johansson, however, retired with a fever from his quarterfinal against his Swedish compatriot Michael Ryderstedt.
Johansson won the first set 6-3 but withdrew when Ryderstedt broke him to 5-3 in the second.
Verdasco, untroubled by the crowd’s support for the American, matched Agassi in the opening set as both dominated with their service. “It was very tough, he’s tough for anyone to play,” said Agassi.
Verdasco, specializing in aces, needed only to fight off one break point on the way to the tiebreak but failed to sustain his excellence as top seed Agassi broke him in the tiebreak to 5-4 before serving out.
In the following set Agassi started to read Verdasco’s serve, breaking the Spaniard to 2-0 and again to 6-2 to seal the match.
The Las Vegan next faces fourth seed Tommy Haas, who defeated Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-3, 7-6. Both Haas and Agassi have yet to lose a set.
Henman Falls to Novak in Basel
Meanwhile, British world No. 4 Tim Henman was knocked out of the quarterfinals of the 989,750 euros Swiss Indoors tournament in Basel, falling 7-6, 7-5 to unseeded Czech Jiri Novak.
It was Novak’s second triumph over the Briton in the space of three months, following his first round defeat of Henman at the Athens Olympics.
Neither player seemed able to find their rhythm in the match’s opening set, dropping two service games each ahead of the tiebreak.
Novak, currently ranked 20th in the world, will now take on Austria’s world No. 73 Stefan Koubek for a place in Sunday’s final.
Koubek fought back from a set down to beat Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 2-6, 7-5, 7-5, a win which earned the 27-year-old from Klagenfurt his first ATP semifinal place this year.
Double Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu of Chile registered his best result since Athens to join Novak and Koubek in the semis. The 25-year-old seventh seed recovered from a break down in the second set of his quarterfinal meeting with the Czech Republic’s Bohdan Ulihrach to seal a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) win.Massu will meet the winner of the tie between Argentine fourth seed David Nalbandian and German sixth seed Rainer Schuettler
Surly Safin Slumps Out of St. Petersburg
In St. Petersburg, top seed and crowd favorite Marat Safin was knocked out of the St. Petersburg Open quarterfinals yesterday, falling 6-4, 6-1 to Michael Llodra.
Coming off an impressive victory at last week’s Madrid Masters, Safin stumbled after encountering stiff resistance from the seventh-seeded Frenchman.
Llodra broke the Russian’s serve in the 10th game to claim the opening set before securing another break in the fourth game of the second to take a 3-1 lead.
After that, the former world No. 1 appeared to lose interest in the match as he surrendered the next three games to go out in less than an hour. The defeat ended Safin’s seven-match winning streak.
Fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, however, kept local interest in the $1 million tournament in Russia’s second city by crushing another Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-0, 6-1 in 48 minutes to secure a meeting with Britain’s Greg Rusedski in today’s semifinals.
In a battle between two hard hitters, Rusedski prevailed over Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 7-6 in the last match of the day.
Karlovic blamed fatigue for his defeat. “I just didn’t play well. I was very tired as I had to stay until 1am last night to finish my doubles match,” said the Croat, who on Thursday also won a grueling three-set battle with Spaniard Alex Corretja, which lasted for over three hours.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for the French contingent as Cyril Saulnier also lost, going down 6-3, 7-6 to unseeded Slovak Karol Beck, who will now face Llodra in the last four.
Safin had problems penetrating Llodra’s steady serve and he also had a difficult time with Brazilian umpire Carlos Bernardes. In the ninth game of the first set with the score level at 4-4, Bernardes incurred Safin’s wrath when he overruled a call and ordered a replay instead of awarding the Russian a point.
A visibly frustrated Safin argued in vain as Llodra held his serve before breaking his opponent in the next game. Then, facing a triple break-point in the fourth game of the second set Safin once again tried to persuade the umpire to change his mind but to no avail.
Fitful Mauresmo Through to Linz Semifinals
In Vienna, top seed Amelie Mauresmo reached the semifinals of the Linz Open when she continued her run of success against Ai Sugiyama by beating the defending champion 6-2, 6-4 yesterday.
Mauresmo, who has not lost to Sugiyama in seven meetings, eased through the first set before she lost concentration.
Mauresmo will now play Jelena Jankovic in the 19-year-old’s second semifinal of her senior career. Jankovic beat Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 6-4, 6-4, ending the fourth seed’s slim chances of reaching the end-of-season WTA Tour championships.
