Tennis roundup
Four seeded players reach semis at Milan MILAN, Italy (AP) – Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden advanced to the Milan Indoors semifinals on Friday, defeating Ukrainian qualifier Sergyi Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-2.
No. 2 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, fourth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and No. 8 Max Mirnyi of Belarus also reached the semifinals.
Ljubicic struggled in the first set, missing three set points before cruising to a 6-7 (4), 6-0, 6-2 quarterfinal win over No. 7 Karol Beck of Slovakia.
Stepanek overcame fifth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 and Mirnyi beat unseeded Tomas Behrend of Germany 6-3, 6-2. Behrend had knocked out top-seeded Andrei Pavel of Romania on Thursday.
Spadea survives another close match at ATP
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Vincent Spadea survived another three-set match Friday night to move into the semifinals of the Delray Beach ATP Tour event.
Spadea defeated fellow American Kevin Kim 7-5, 6-7 (0), 6-4 – the second consecutive struggle for the tournament’s top seed. He needed three sets to oust Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili in the round of 16.
Kim, once the top-ranked American junior player, took a 3-0 lead in the final set. Spadea quickly regained momentum and won six of the final seven games.
“I wasn’t feeling like strategically I had an answer,” Spadea said. “I just had to ride out whatever he was trying to do. As great as he was playing, he’s not Sampras, he’s not Agassi. Anyone can play at that level for 10 minutes, 20 minutes.”
Spadea will play Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the semifinals. Malisse beat lucky loser Ramon Delgado of Paraguay 6-2, 6-2 in Friday’s late quarterfinal.