Top seed Stanislas Wawrinka fired down 17 aces on his way to beating Argentine eighth seed Guillermo Canas 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) to reach the Gstaad Open semifinals on Friday. The home hope will face Romanian Victor Hanescu, who beat French qualifier Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), on Saturday for a place in the final. World number 10 Wawrinka, who now stands one victory away from a repeat of his 2005 final at this high-altitude resort, came back from a break down in the final set to force a tiebreaker. Wawrinka and Russian Igor Andreev, a winner over Croatian Marin Cilic, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, are the last two seeds in contention. Third seed Mikhail Youzhny went down to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez as the Russian lost for a fifth straight match against a Spaniard, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Ferrer in semifinals Top-seeded David Ferrer won the first four games in the third set and beat Robin Soderling 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1 Friday to reach the Swedish Open semifinals. After losing the second-set tiebreaker, Ferrer broke to lead 2-0 and 4-0 in the decisive set. It was the fourth-ranked Spaniard's second win over Soderling after losing the first four matches against the Swede. Soderling forced a decisive set by winning the second-set tiebreaker 7-3 on his third set point after Ferrer's forehand return sailed long. In the 10th game, Ferrer saved two set points when trailing 40-15 with serve. Ferrer now takes on compatriot and 2006 winner Tommy Robredo after the third seed beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-2' 7-6 in the last singles match of the day. Spain's Fernando Verdasco and Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic will meet in the other semifinal. The second-seeded Verdasco rallied past Swedish qualifier Bjorn Rehnquist 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 while No. 4 Berdych beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-3, 6-2 in the other quarterfinals. Gasquet in semis In Stuttgart, second-seeded Richard Gasquet of France beat Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3, 7-6 (5) Friday at the Mercedes Cup to reach his first semifinal this year. The 22-year-old Gasquet, who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, was joined by three clay-court Argentine specialists. Sixth-seeded Agustin Calleri will play Gasquet after dispatching Michael Berrer of Germany 6-4, 6-2 to reach his second semifinal in 2008. Eduardo Schwank, the eighth seed, downed Czech player Jan Hernych 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. He will face Juan Martin del Potro, who overcame two rain delays in a 7-6 (3), 6-3 win against fourth-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber. Santoro advances Defending champion Fabrice Santoro pulled out a first-set tiebreaker and then cruised into the quarterfinals of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory over Aisamul Haq Qureshi on Thursday. In another second-round match, Vince Spadea upset third-seeded Nicolas Mahut, 6-2, 6-3. In other play, Ivan Navarro ousted No. 8 seed Kevin Anderson, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4; qualifier Alexander Peya defeated sixth-seeded Donald Young, 7-6 (4), 6-3; and wild card Prakash Amritraj eliminated qualifier Rohan Bopanna, an upset winner over top-seeded Mardy Fish on Wednesday, 6-4, 6-3. Frank Dancevic, Canada's top-ranked player, defeated fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn, 7-5, 6-3. Medina in quarters Four-time champion Anabel Medina Garrigues advanced to the Palermo International quarterfinals Thursday with a 6-0, 6-4 win over fellow Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives. Also, No. 7 Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine edged Chinese qualifier Han Xinyun 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and No. 8 Tathiana Garbin of Italy eliminated Olivia Sanchez of France 7-5 6-4. Qualifier Margalita Chakhnashvili and lucky loser Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also made the last eight. Chakhnashvili won 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Italian wild card Corinna Dentoni; and Pavlyuchenkova routed Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay 6-1, 6-2.
