Argentina’s Guillermo Coria, the third seed, reached the semifinals of the French Open on Tuesday with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win over Spanish fifth seed and 1998 champion Carlos Moya.
Coria will now face Britain’s Tim Henman, who beat Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, for a place in the final.
It was Coria’s 47th win in his last 49 matches on clay and gives him the chance to go one better than last year at Roland Garros where he lost his semifinal to Martin Verkerk of The Netherlands.
The 22-year-old’s two hours and 25 minutes win was also his fourth successive win against Moya and he is now the first man since Sergi Bruguera and Alberto Berasategui in 1994 to get to the last four here without dropping a set.
Moya said he wasted his opportunities in the match.
”Coria is a great player who always seems to know where the ball is going but I had chances,” said Moya.
”But I didn’t play the important points very well. The conditions also didn’t help. I wanted a dry sunny day but got the opposite with a heavy ball.
”It’s just very frustrating. I felt in control of the match in the first set but he just kept getting the ball back.” — Sapa-AFP