Agence France Presse

Memphis, February 21

Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist confirmed he is back to his best form with a straight-set victory over top seed Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals of the $880,000 tennis tournament here.

Enqvist downed America’s reigning US Open champion 7-6, 6-3 to set up a semi-final clash with eighth-seeded Germany Nicolas Kiefer.

Enqvist’s fellow Swede Joachim Johansson moved through to his first ATP semi-final, where he will face No 2 seed Mardy Fish.

On the women’s side, top seed Vera Zvonareva defeated third-seeded fellow Russian Maria Sharapova 7-6, 6-2 to reach the final. She’ll stand in the way of second-seeded American Lisa Raymond’s bid for a third straight title here. Raymond advanced with a 6-3, 6-0 win over fourth-seeded comptriot Lisa Raymond.

In the semi-final, it was Granville who made the better start, breaking Raymond in the opening game of the match. But Raymond, who reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open last month, broke back immediately and settled into her game.

From 3-3 in the first set, Raymond reeled off nine games in a row and lost just 13 points in the second set to breeze into final.

Zvonareva also had to get over a slow start to subdue her doubles partner, falling behind 0-3 in an opening set that featured six breaks of serve. She broke Sharapova to lead 3-1 in the second and remained in control to clinch victory. While the top two women’s seeds advanced to the final, only the No 2 and No 8 remained in the final four of the mes tournament.

Fish, who fell to Roddick in the final at San Jose last week, still had a chance to go one better here thanks to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Tursunov in an hour and 50 minutes. He’ll face Johansson , who reached the final of the Siebel Open last week, recovered from the loss of the second set to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in 1 hour, 50 minutes.

First up will be Johansson, the big-serving 21-year-old who reached his first career ATP semi-final with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Belgian Xavier Malisse.

Kiefer reached his first semi-final since Long Island last August with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over American Jan-Michael Gambill.

Rotterdam

ROTTERDAM: Hard-slogging Lleyton Hewitt clawed his way into the semi-finals of the 842,000-euro Rotterdam World tennis event Friday with a gritty winning performance over third seed Rainer Schuettler.

Hewitt, seeded fifth and playing the event in this no-nonsense home of the world’s largest container port, put his tennis work ethic on display to a warm reception, as he produced a 7-6, 6-3 trip into the final four. Schuettler, a hard man of the game like Hewitt who reached the 2003 Australian Open final through sheer grinding determination, suffered with a bloody fingernail problem which required several trips on court from the trainer.

Defending champion Max Mirnyi continued to play the role of quiet destroyer, eliminating Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 7-6 in their quarter-finals to little fanfare. In another match Tim Henman beatt Roger Federer 6-3, 7-6.