Spain’s world number three Juan Carlos Ferrero emerged from a three-set dogfight with Moroccan Hicham Arazi to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The French Open champion needed two tie-break sets to put away the 51-ranked Arazi, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5) in two hours and 36 minutes and will now play second-seed Roger Federer or Argentine eighth-seed David Nalbandian in the semifinals on Friday.
Federer and Nalbandian play their quarterfinal later on Wednesday.
It is the best performance at an Australian Open for 23-year-old Ferrero, who has battled injuries throughout the tournament to get to the last four.
Ferrero is the first Spaniard into the Australian semifinals since Carlos Moya in 1997.
Arazi was backing up after his wonderful straight-sets victory over Australian 10th-seed Mark Philippoussis in the previous round and looked a little flat early before he rallied late in the second set.
”I knew that Hicham always plays good rallies and it’s more normal to beat him 7-6, 7-6 than 6-1 [in the first set],” said Ferrero, who has now beaten Arazi in four of their six meetings.
”I missed some easy volleys at 5-4 and 40-15 but then I won the second set in a tiebreaker and in the third I began to feel a little bit tighter, but I played good tennis at 5-4 on his serve and finally I could win the tough match.
”I’m in the semifinals and Andy Roddick is out of the tournament, but I have to play two more matches to win the tournament. I have two great players ahead of me so it will be very difficult.”
Arazi looked a shadow of the player who crushed Philippoussis in the opening set-and-a-half.
Ferrero broke his second service game as he moved the Moroccan around the back of the court and he repeated it in Arazi’s next service game to storm to a 5-1 lead and the set.
The third seed maintained his dominance in the second game, breaking Arazi in the opening game with the Moroccan howling in frustration over his growing number of errors.
The Spaniard was serving for the set at 5-4 and held two set points at 40-15 but in a dramatic turnaround Arazi fought back for two break points as Ferrero lapsed into error.
Arazi broke back to 5-5 and the set went to a tiebreaker.
There was a huge swing to the Moroccan who got to 6/3 and three set points, but Ferrero rubbed them out and then grabbed a set point of his own with Arazi’s forehand just long after an exciting rally and then netting a backhand to put the Spaniard up two sets to love.
Ferrero’s serve was coming under attack in the third set and he fought off two break points before holding in the fifth, but Arazi broke through in the world number three’s next service game when a Ferrero backhand was well wide to Arazi to lead 4-3.
Ferrero was again under pressure in his next service game with Arazi holding two set points before he held for 5-4.
But Arazi dropped his next serve amid forehand errors to locked the games up.
Ferrero, steady under pressure, again played the better of the two in the second tiebreaker getting to 6/5 and match point and winning when Arazi’s backhand found the net. — Sapa-AFP