TENNIS WORLD

No. 4 Seed Starace Closes In On Second Final; Faces Melzer
© Austrian Open Fourth-seeded Italian Potito Starace took one step closer to a second straight final appearance at the Austrian Open in Kitzbuhel with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over fifth-seeded Argentine Eduardo Schwank on Friday.
Starace, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Monday, was in strong form in his first meeting with Schwank, dropping just six points behind his first serve and converting four of six break point chances to wrap up victory in only 58 minutes.
The 22-year-old Schwank has risen from No. 171 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings at the start of the year to a career-high No. 58 after titling three times on the ATP Challenger Circuit and reaching his first ATP semifinal in Stuttgart (l. to del Potro) last week,
World No. 61 Starace finished runner-up to Juan Monaco in the Kitzbuhel title match last year, one of two finals (l. to Almagro in Valencia) that he reached in 2007. This season, the Cervinara resident had contested four ATP quarterfinals and is through to his first semifinal after falling in Buenos Aires (l. to Nalbandian), Acapulco (l. to Nalbandian), Valencia (l. to Robredo) and Bastad (l. to Berdych).
In the semifinals, Starace will have a first-time meeting with Jurgen Melzer, the sixth seed and home favorite, who fought for a semifinal spot with a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over German second seed Rainer Schuettler. Earlier in the day, Wimbledon semifinalist Schuettler had recovered from a break down twice in the third set to close out his second round match with Czech Jan Hernych 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Back in the Top 40 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for the first time since April 2005 after his Wimbledon success, World No. 39 Schuettler was looking to reach his second ATP semifinal of the season and his first at the Austrian Open since 2004 (l. to Massu).
World No. 66 Melzer is through to his first ATP semifinal since 2007 Las Vegas, where he went on to finish runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt in the final. Earlier this season the 27-year-old made quarterfinal exits at Poertschach (l. to Kunitsyn) and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Gicquel). The Vienna native is enjoying his best run in seven visits to Kitzbuhel, his previous best performance was a quarterfinal appearance last year (l. to Youzhny).
No. 7 seed Juan Martin del Potro (pictured) continued his good run of form by reaching his second straight ATP semifinal with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over World No. 80 Nicolas Devilder.
The Argentine capitalized on five of 11 break point opportunities and dropped just six points behind his first serve to wrap up victory in 1 hr., 11 min.
Earlier in the day, both del Potro and Devilder had booked their places in the quarterfinals with victories over Sergio Roitman 6-2, 6-4 and wild card Alexander Peya 6-4, 6-4 respectively in the second round.
The 19-year-old del Potro captured his maiden ATP singles title last week in Stuttgart, defeating Richard Gasquet in the final. The Tandil resident, who was also a semifinalist in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Ferrer), now stands at No. 44 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, level with the career-high he obtained on November 5, 2007.
In the semifinals, del Potro faces Victor Hanescu, who defeated Brian Dabul 6-3, 6-4. World No. 59 Hanescu captured his maiden ATP singles title last week in Gstaad with victory over World No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka in the semifinals and No. 34 Igor Andreev in the final.