Koubek upsets Ancic; Tursunov, Berydch also make semis

Mumbai, Sep 29 (UNI) World number 118 Stefan Koubek of Austria caused the biggest upset of this tournament when he scored a superb come-from-behind win to oust second seed and crowd favourite Mario Ancic of Croatia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to storm into the semis of the 3,80,000 dollars Kingfisher Airlines Open tennis tournament at the CCI hard courts here today.

Koubek, playing some of the best tennis in this tournament, was helped by an off-colour Ancic whose serve failed him miserably in the third set as the Austrian took control to fashion out a famous victory.

Ancic started the match in great fashion giving his opponent no chance whatsoever. The world number 11's serve and volley was clinical in the first set as he won that in a canter at 6-3 and looked like he would finish off the match also very soon.

However, Koubek had other ideas as he slowly started making the tall Croat play more and more balls.

This had a positive effect on the Austrian's game as Ancic's unforced errors started rising steadily. Ancic's serve also deserted him as Koubek had an early break in the second set. Ancic, however broke back immediately to level the score at 2-2 in the second.

Koubek, however broke Ancic once again in seventh game and then served out to push the match into a deciding third set. Koubek won the second set at 6-4.

The third set belonged to Koubek as Ancic lost his way with his serve and volleys failing him miserably.

Koubek broke Ancic once again early in the third and kept the pressure up on the Croat before closing the match on his third match point.

Earlier, fourth seed Russian Dmitry Trusunov and third seed Tomas Berydch of the Czech Republic took their appointed places in the semis with the former beating James Auckland in three sets at 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Berydch beat Bjorn Phaus of Germany at 6-3, 7-5.

It was the third seed Tomas Berydch of the Czech Republic who became the first player to book his semifinal berth when he overcame German opposition for the second match in a row.

Berdych, who this year reached his first grass court final in Germany (Garry Weber Open), had things in control for a major period, however he should have scripted his progress in a much more emphatic way had he limited the unforced errors, committed especially from his forehand.

Turning up for the first match on the centre court, Berdych, ranked number 13th in the world, broke Phau once in the first and twice in the second set to close the game in the one hour fourteen minute quarter-final contest.

In a match on Court one, it was the British qualifier Auckland who started off the blocks in a flash as he slammed five aces and with a break in the sixth game, pocketed the first set against the world number 23 Dmitry Kursunov at 6-3 in 32 minutes.

Kursunov, however was not one to give up and came out in the second set with a plan to overcome Auckland's assault. The Russian proved successful as an early break in the second game saw him jump to a 3-0 lead and bag the second set at 6-3 in 30 minutes and push the match into the deciding third set.

In the third set, the fourth seeded Russian, fresh from an epic Davis Cup victory over American Andy Roddick 17-15 in the fifth, broke Aukland in the fifth game which was enough to give him the set and the match at 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes.

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