07 March 2004	Sunday	15 Muharram 1425

DUBAI, March 6: Feliciano Lopez, who made his Davis Cup debut for Spain in the final in November, reached the first ATP Tour final of his career on Saturday.

The 22-year-old from Barcelona achieved that with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Mikhail Youzhny in the Dubai Open, a success which could mean that the Spaniard will reach the world's top 20 for the first time.

However it looked as though the Spaniard was wilting after he lost the second set and then went break point down in his opening service game of the final set.

Lopez saved that with an ace, and produced another ace to win that game. But for a while he still struggled against an opponent who stroked the ball deceptively off both wings but also served with more venom than usual.

Lopez then seemed to gain adrenalin from holding serve at four-all, exclaiming a sharp "vamos!" to himself. Sure enough in the next game he made the killer thrust.

He produced that with a dipping forehand topspin which lurched below the height of the net and forced a volleying error from the inrushing Youzhny, putting him 30-40 down.

Lopez converted this break point at the first attempt, playing a loopy medium paced forehand which lured Youzhny into a rash attack, smacking a flattish drive just over the baseline.

Semifinal results Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 7-6 (9-7) 6-2; Feliciano Lopez (Spain) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-4 4-6 6-4

RODDICK IN SEMIS

SCOTTSDALE, (Arizona): Andy Roddick overcame 21 aces by his hard-serving opponent to post a 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jan-Michael Gambill and advance to the semifinals of the 380,000 dollar ATP Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic.

Earlier in the day, top seed Roddick dispatched Alex Bogomolov 6-4, 6-3, in a match that was postponed due to heavy rains that washed away Thursday's card.

Roddick takes on No. 4 seed Vince Spadea, a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 winner over sixth-seeded fellow American James Blake.

Victor Hanescu will be making his first career ATP semi-final appearance in the hardcourt event.

The 22-year-old Romanian upset second-seeded Dutchman Martin Verkerk, 7-5, 6-4, hours after a 6-3, 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 victory over Swedish teenager Robin Soderling, a completion of their rain-interrupted match Thursday.

Hanescu will face No. 7 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, who saved two second-set points and beat No. 3 seed Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

Against Gambill, Roddick never had a break point against him. He dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker but shrugged it off.

Roddick kept the pressure on with his booming serve and managed to utilize a lone service break in each of the next two sets for his first career win in three tries against Gambill.

Results:

Quarterfinals: Andy Roddick (USA x1) bt Jan-Michael Gambill (USA) 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-3; Nicolas Kiefer (GER x7) bt Robby Ginepri (USA x3) 6-3, 7-6 (8/6); Victor Hanescu (ROM) bt Martin Verkerk (NED x2) 7-5, 6-4; Vincent Spadea (USA x4) bt James Blake (USA x6) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

WTA Qatar Open final result

DOHA: Result from the sixth and final day of the 600,000-dollar WTA Qatar Open here on Saturday (x denotes seeding):

Final:Anastasia Myskina (RUS x3) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4-Agencies