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BASEL (Switzerland), Oct 25: Defending champion David Nalbandian beat top seed Andy Roddick 7-5 7-5 in the Swiss Indoors semi-finals on Saturday to set up an all-Argentine final with Guillermo Coria.
Fourth-seeded Nalbandian extended his unbeaten run in Basel to nine games as he got the better of U.S. Open holder Roddick for the first time, and stay on track for his first title of the season.
Third-seeded Coria, 21, secured a place in his seventh final of the year by beating Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-4 in the earlier match.
Nalbandian had lost to Roddick in their three previous encounters, including a sensational semi-final at Flushing Meadows when the American came back from two sets down to win.
But the Argentine, who is bidding to secure a spot at the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, broke at 5-5 in both sets before serving out.
Nalbandian had broken in the opening game, only for Roddick to level the scores at 4-4. But the American was made to pay when he hit long at 5-5. Both players held serve in the second set until Nalbandian claimed the match-winning break when Roddick hit wide to hand the Argentine a 6-5 lead.
Coria broke once in each set with the scores at 2-2 and big-serving Croat Ljubicic, who beat the world number five in Rome earlier this year, was unable to reply.
Coria had failed to take his first break point in the opening set, but he grasped the second opportunity. He was then denied a second break when 4-2 up as Ljubicic held on.
The Argentine saved two break points when 3-2 up in the second set but from there offered his opponent no chance after twice holding serve to love.
Results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Semifinals: 4-David Nalbandian (Argentina) beat 1-Andy Roddick (U.S.) 7-5 7-5; 3-Guillermo Coria (Argentina) beat Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 6-4 6-4
Sargsian faces Kuerten
ST PETERSBURG: Unseeded Armenian Sargis Sargsian will meet Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten in the St Petersburg final after knocking out top seed Rainer Schuettler 6-3 6-3 in Saturday’s semifinals.
Sargsian will contest his second final this month, having reached the last stage of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow before losing to American Taylor Dent.
Earlier, Brazilian Kuerten beat Alex Corretja 6-4 6-3 to end the Spaniard’s hopes of reaching his first final in more than a year.
Results (semifinals):
Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) beat 1-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 6-3 6-3; 3-Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) beat Alex Corretja (Spain) 6-4 6-3
Fish shows class
STOCKHOLM: Fifth seed Mardy Fish showed his class on Saturday, outplaying Swede Thomas Enqvist 6-4 7-5 at the Stockholm Open semifinals to reach his fourth ATP final of the year.
The 21-year-old American has yet to win an ATP tournament but faces Swedish teenager Robin Soderling, a tournament wild card who beat Italian Davide Sanguinetti 7-6 7-6 earlier in the day.
Fish was unfazed by the crowd’s support of their former three-time champion as he blasted 16 aces past Enqvist to clinch the match in an hour and 20 minutes.
He broke Enqvist to 4-3 and then held on to serve to win the first set. He broke the Swede to 2-1 in the second, but Enqvist raised his game and he broke back to 2-2, pumped up by the crowd.
Soderling had a tougher task against Sanguinetti as neither player dropped serve throughout the match, but the 19-year-old Swede proved the stronger in the tiebreaks, winning the first one 7-2 and the second 7-5.
Results (semifinals): 5-Mardy Fish (U.S) beat Thomas Enqvist (Sweden) 6-4 7-5; Robin Soderling (Sweden) beat Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-5)—Reuters
