Canas advances to Channel semi-final
Saturday, 8 March 2008 12:37Guillermo Canas advanced to his first semi-final of the season with straight-sets victory over American qualifier Amer Delic 6-4 6-4 on Friday at the Tennis Channel Open.
The world number 20 and the lone seeded player left in the field, Canas took advantage of 29 unforced errors and easily dispatched of the 126th-ranked Delic.
It has been a dominant run for Canas, who is playing in just his second tournament after being sidelined by wrist tendonitis for the first part of the year.
In three matches, Canas has won 78% of his service points (40-of-51) and committed just 35 unforced errors, compared to 95 by his opponents.
While Canas has been solid, the same cannot be said of his seeded peers. Top seed Fernando Gonzalez, number two Lleyton Hewitt - the defending champion - and the third-seeded Marcos Baghdatis all were ousted in a rash of second-round upsets.
The lone survivor, Canas next will face American Sam Querrey, who advanced with a 7-5 6-2 victory over Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
In other action, American Robby Ginepri reached his third straight semi-final with a straight-sets victory over 19-year-old Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-1 6-2.
Ginepri will meet South African qualifier Kevin Anderson, who posted a 6-2 6-0 victory over Russian Evgeny Korolev.
