NEW DELHI, January 1: On a sun drenched New Year's day, top seed Vadim Kutsenko's patience came in handy as Andrew Rueb, an American psychology graduate, let up late in the third set to allow the Uzbek back into the semi-final of the $10,000 ITF Men's Future Circuit tournament at the DTA courts on Thursday.Meanwhile, Indian tennis' new German champion, Marcus Hilpert, served notice of his immense potential knocking out third seeded Briton, James Delgado 6-3, 7-5. He will take on Kutsenko in Friday's semi-final while another Uzbek, Dmitri Tomasevich, plays second seeded Israeli Lior Mor in the second semi-final.The big serving Rueb, ranked way below Kutsenko, was completely at home on his favourite hard courts. Though Kutsenko played safe and took the first set, Rueb got his act together, came in on his serve, put away his second volleys and minced the Uzbek 6-1 in the second.By then, an expectant crowd waited for Rueb to hustle Kutsenko out of the tournament. But the Uzbak steadied himself, stayed at the baseline waiting for his chance. It came in the seventh game when he held serve at love and then broke Rueb with a backhand pass to lead 5-3. The last game was a mere formality. Kutsenko surely owes his tremendous feel today to the eccentric German, Alex Bose, who he played on the New Year's eve. Rueb, however, ensured that his Indian coach, Arun Jetli, who will arrive in Delhi tomorrow, does get to see him play, when he made the doubles semis.Hilpert, who has never played Kutsenko before, confesses to being an impatient man, and the latter has no real weapon to trouble him. Also, the German's best ranking of 296 is higher than Kutsenko's present 328, and the 26-year-old Hilpert is in a hurry to get cracking.Kutsenko's countryman, Dmitri Tomasevich ran into early trouble against Israeli Erlich Jonathon, but breezed through after the Israeli got irritable and distracted himself by taking out his ire on his racquet.The Indian challenge ended in doubles, too. The Kirtane cousins - Nitin and Sandeep - lost in three sets to a patchy pair James Delgado and Lior Mor despite starting out well taking the first set 6-2.Kutsenko, pairing with Dmitri Tomasevich also reached the doubles semis beating Alex Bose and Todd Meringoff.RESULTSSingles (quarter-finals): Vadim Kutsenko (Uzb) bt Andrew Rueb (US) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, Marcus Hilpert (Ger) bt James Delgado (Gbr) 6-3, 7-5, Dmitri Tomasevich (Uzb) bt Jonathon Erlich (Isr) 7-6(6), 6-3, Lior Mor (Isr) bt Naom Okun (Isr) 6-2, 6-0Doubles: Ali Hamadeh-Andrew Rueb bt Vasudeva Reddy-Amod Wakalkar 6-0, 6-3, Jonathon Erlich/Naom Okun bt Marcus Hilpert-Rainer Gunther 6-3, 6-4, Vadim Kutsenko-Dmitri Tomasevich bt Alex Bose-Todd Meringoff 6-2, 6-3, James Delgado-Lior Mor bt Nitin Kirtane-Sandeep Kirtane 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
