LONDON, June 14: Goran Ivanisevic beat Greg Rusedski in a thrilling semifinal, today, to meet Mark Philippoussis in the final of the Queen's grass -court tennis tournament.Ivanisevic clinched a thrilling third-set tiebreaker which lasted 38 points to put paid to the Briton after both players had six match points and changed ends five times in the tie-breaker. The third-seeded Croat sent down his 13th ace to clinch the issue 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (20-18).Earlier Mark Philippoussis rallied from one set down to defeat Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 and become the first Australian to reach the final at Queen's in 17 years.The battle between the big-serving left-handers Ivanisevic and Rusedski provided the vocal crowd with an intensely exciting and dramatic display of serve-and-volley grass-court tennis.One break in each set saw the match level at one set apiece after 55 minutes. The first three games of the third set were served to love and neither player dropped a game as the decider approached a tie-breaker.The tension reached breaking point in the ninth game when Rusedski saved two breaks after being disturbed by spectators talking at 30-40.Neither player let up in the tie-breaker as both men banged down serves upto 131 miles an hour and followed them with acute, ruthless volleys.Rusedski, seeded 16 and striving to become the first-ever British player to make the final at Queen's, had the crowd going wild as he saved six match points and held six himself.But Ivanisevic remained focused and when Rusedski presented him with a seventh matchpoint at 19-18 after a weak backhand found the net, the Croat sealed it with an ace after two-and-three-quarter hours.Yesterday, an uncomfortable-looking Pete Sampras stumbled out of his only pre-Wimbledon warm-up tournament at Queen's Club today after suffering a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final defeat to unseeded Swede Jonas Bjorkman.The world No 1, who has had little practice on grass after receiving a bye and a walkover in his three previous rounds, was undone by a welter of errors and mistimed shots and could not find his usual precision at the net.Kafelnikov downs BeckerHALLE: Top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov scored a straight-sets victory over triple Wimbledon champion Boris Becker in the semifinals of the $875,000 halle grasscourt tournament today.Kafelnikov will now play the unseeded Petr Korda of the Czech Republic, who beat Dutchman Paul Haarhuis 7-6 6-4, in tomorrow's final.Kafelnikov, who ousted Germany's Michael Stich in the quarter-finals yesterday, crushed the fourth-seeded Becker 6-3 6-4 in a 75-minute match.Kuerten in finalBOLOGNA: Gustavo Kuerten, the surprise winner of the French Open this month, breezed past Marzio Martelli today to advance to the finals of the Carisbo International Tennis Tournament.The Brazilian, seeded eighth, defeated the unheralded Italian 6-1, 6-2, on the clay courts of this $328,000 tournament.Kuerten faced little difficulty in dispatching Martelli, doing so in just 50 minutes.
