ROTTERDAM, Feb 23: Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic hammered 15 aces as he swept past German qualifier Mischa Zverev on Friday to book a place in the semi-finals of the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam.

The world No 24 took just 55 minutes to end the run of Zverev 6-3, 6-1 and will face France’s Michael Llodra for a place in the final.

In the other semi-final, Robin Soderling of Sweden will face France’s Gilles Simon.

Soderling needed just over an hour to knock out Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-2, while Simon registered the same score to brush aside Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili.

Seppi never reached the level he displayed in the first two rounds when he knocked out Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal.

After the exodus of leading seeds Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych on Thursday, Karlovic is the highest-ranked player remaining in the tournament.

Karlovic, who has hit 44 aces in his three matches here, will take on unseeded Llodra, who edged out Dutch wildcard Robin Haase 7-6, 7-6.

Friday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Quarter-finals: Gilles Simon (France) bt Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-3, 6-2; Robin Soederling (Sweden) bt Andreas Seppi (Italy) 6-3, 6-2; Michael Llodra (France) bt Robin Haase (Netherlands) 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5); Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt Mischa Zverev (Germany) 6-3, 6-1.

SHARAPOVA IN SEMIS

DOHA: Russia’s Maria Sharapova swept aside Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki 6-0, 6-1 on Friday to reach the Qatar Open semi-finals and set up a revenge clash with Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska.

But third-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic joined the long list of upset victims at the tournament when she lost 6-3, 6-4 to unseeded Li Na of China.

Sharapova has a potentially difficult meeting with 16th seeded Radwanska, who beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 after the Slovak upset sixth seed Venus Williams in the previous round.

Radwanska produced one of the biggest upsets at last year’s US Open when she beat Sharapova in the third round.

Sybille Bammer claimed her first career win over a top 10 opponent on Thursday when she beat second-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova but the 15th seed failed to build on her success, losing 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 to Russia’s Vera Zvonareva.

Results:

Quarter-finals: Li Na (China) bt 3-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) 6-3, 6-4; 4-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) 6-0, 6-1; Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt 15-Sybille Bammer (Austria) 2-6, 6-2, 6-0; 16-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 6-4, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4.

BLAKE STUNNED

SAN JOSE: Top seed Andy Roddick beat Mardy Fish 7-6, 1-6, 7-5 in the quarter-finals of the San Jose Open on Friday but James Blake lost in straight sets to Robby Ginepri.

Roddick will face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who fought off three match points to defeat big-serving John Isner 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, while Ginepri will go up against fourth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who took care of Lu Yen-hsun 6-2, 7-6.Ginepri delivered a 6-2, 6-2 victory over second seed Blake, who had beaten him in the semi-finals of Delray Beach last week.

Results:

Quarter-finals: 1-Andy Roddick (US) bt Mardy Fish (US) 7-6, 1-6, 7-5; Robby Ginepri (US) bt 2-James Blake (US) 6-2, 6-2; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) bt John Isner (US) 7-6, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (13-11); 4-Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Lu Yen-hsun (Taiwan) 6-2, 7-6.—Reuters