seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-4, 6-1 Friday to reach the semifinals of the German Open. Melzer will meet another Italian in the semifinals of the clay-court tournament, Andreas Seppi, who upset seventh-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 7-6 (0), 5-7, 7-5. Melzer was a semifinalist at the French Open and is the highest seeded player left in the field. He was a semifinalist in Hamburg in 2004, while Seppi reached the last four in 2008. Florian Mayer upset sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, beating the Spaniard for the first time in five matches to reach a semifinal for the first time this year. The lone German left in the draw rallied to win 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3. Mayer's semifinal opponent will be Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, who defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-1 to make his first semifinal of the season. Cornet, Goerges in semis Alize Cornet of France and Julia Goerges of Germany reached the semifinals of the Gastein Ladies in Austria Friday. Cornet defeated Austrian wild card Patricia Mayr 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2, and Goerges beat Russia's Anastasia Pivovarova 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4. The 81st-ranked Cornet, who eliminated top-seeded defending champion Andrea Petkovic on Thursday, broke Mayr nine times to qualify for her second semifinal of the season after Fes, Morocco in April. Goerges, ranked 65th, was broken while for serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set but had three breaks in the decider to close out the quarterfinal. Later Friday, No. 2 Timea Bacsinszky played Sandra Zahlavova and No. 8 Anastasija Sevastova faced Yvonne Meusburger for the remaining semifinal spots. Roddick in 3rd round Top-seeded Andy Roddick weathered high temperatures to beat Rajeev Ram 6-1, 6-7 (1), 6-3 in the second round of the Atlanta Tennis Championships Thursday. Roddick will face seventh-seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the quarterfinals. Malisse defeated Ukraine's Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-3, while third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt lost a late match 6-4, 6-2 to Slovakia's Lukas Lacko. Roddick improved his ATP tour-leading match record to 27-4 on hardcourts. In quarterfinals, Lacko will play Russia's Kevin Anderson, a 7-5, 6-3 second-round winner over Donald Young.
