Top three seeds enter last four

Top-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain outplayed unseeded Thierry Ascione of France 6-4, 6-4 while defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan overcame ...

Top-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain outplayed unseeded Thierry Ascione of France 6-4, 6-4 while defending champion Paradorn Srichaphan overcame a fighting Igor Andreev of Russia 6-3, 7-6 (2) to storm into semi-finals of the Tata Open ATP Tennis Championship here tonight.

In another quarter-final, Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands outlasted Felix Mantilla of Spain in a pulsating three-setter that went to wire, with the third seed booking a berth in the last four with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6) win in little over two-and-half hours in front of a good Centre Court crowd.

Second-seeded Srichaphan lifted his game at the crucial stages to be just one match away from his third successive final appearance at the country’s premier tournament and stretched his match record to 12-1, having lost the only match in the 2002 final to Guillermo Canas of Argentina.

World No.7 Moya, who survived a scare against Paul Goldstein of USA last night in the second round, came with the most convincing display, outclassing the growing Frenchman with a break in the ninth game of the first set and in the fifth of the second set.

Ascione, who had upset sixth seed Rafael Nadal of Spain in the first round before ousting India’s Prakash Amirtraj, looked clueless as Moya unleashed his powerful forehand at will.

Moya, who had lost in the quarter-finals in the 1999 edition on his first appearance, was not in any sort of trouble and played with confidence as his forehands and double-fisted backhands brooked no response on many occasions.