NEWPORT (Rhode Island), July 14: South African Wesley Moodie beat second-seeded American Vince Spadea in straight sets here Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship.
Moodie converted two of his six break chances en route to the 6-4, 6-4 victory in the grasscourt tournament.
Spadea in contrast failed to capitalize on any of his six break opportunities.
Moodie booked a showdown with fourth-seeded Fabrice Santoro of France. Santoro advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over German Mischa Zverev.
Belgian Dick Norman, who defeated Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, will meet fifth-seeded Nicolas Mahut of France, who defeated Indian qualifier Prakash Amritraj 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
Friday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Quarter-finals: 4-Fabrice Santoro (France) beat Mischa Zverev (Germany) 6-4, 6-3; Wesley Moodie (South Africa) beat 2-Vince Spadea (US) 6-4, 6-4; 5-Nicolas Mahut (France) beat Prakash Amritraj (India) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); Dick Norman (Belgium) beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
BASTAD (Sweden): Fourth seed Carlos Moya continued his impressive run at the Swedish Open on Friday by easily dispatching local hope Robin Soderling 6-2, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
The former world No 1 needed 69 minutes against the Swedish sixth seed to reach his third semi-final in four appearances here, having won the Bastad tournament in 2002.
The Mallorcan, who beat Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui in the final five years ago, broke the Swede three times during the match to set up an all-Spanish encounter in the semi-finals with rising hope Nicolas Almagro.
Almagro overcame Peru's Luis Horna 7-5, 6-4 in one hour 34 minutes. On his way to the last eight, Horna had beaten top seed and defending champion Tommy Robredo.
Second seed David Ferrer barely broke into a sweat against Frenchman Gilles Simon to become the third Spaniard in the semi-finals.
Simon managed to hold his opening service game but then crumbled under the powerful baseline play of Ferrer, who grabbed 12 games in a row to win 6-1, 6-0.
Ferrer now meets Italian fifth seed Filippo Volandri, who cruised past Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-2.
Friday’s results:
Quarter-finals: 5-Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat Olivier Rochus (Belgium) 6-1, 6-2; 2-David Ferrer (Spain) beat Gilles Simon (France) 6-1, 6-0; 4-Carlos Moya (Spain) beat 6-Robin Soederling (Sweden) 6-2, 6-4; Nicolas Almagro (Spain) beat Luis Horna (Peru) 7-5, 64.
GSTAAD (Switzerland): Hopes of an all-French final at the Swiss Open ended on Friday when three of the country's four quarter-finalists were beaten.
On a day of sweltering temperatures at the high-altitude clay court event, champion and third seed Richard Gasquet lost 7-5, 6-2 to Russian wildcard Igor Andreev.
French No 4 Marc Gicquel, seeded sixth in Gstaad, went down unexpectedly 6-3, 6-3 to Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek.
Paul-Henri Mathieu was the only Frenchman to survive the cull, but that was at the expense of compatriot Gael Monfils whom he beat 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
Gasquet had been strongly fancied to retain his title after his run to the Wimbledon semi-finals put him in the top 10 for the first time.
His Grand Slam exploits seemed to catch up with him however, with Andreev enjoying a four-game winning streak at the end of the first set and start of the second.
Mathieu will face Stepanek in the semi-finals with the Czech looking to avenge last month's defeat to the Frenchman in the opening round at Wimbledon.
Andreev, who reached the finals here in 2004 before losing to Roger Federer, will play Italian Andreas Seppi. The Russian has won all four of their previous meetings.
Friday’s results:
Quarter-finals: 5-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) beat Gael Monfils (France) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3; Igor Andreev (Russia) beat 3-Richard Gasquet (France) 7-5, 6-2; Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) beat 6-Marc Gicquel (France) 6-3, 6-3; Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Martin Vassallo Arguello (Argentina) 6-4, 6-0.—Agencies
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