Kuerten Downs Top Seed Safin
http://www.atptennis.com/lyon/newsstories/fridayreview.asp
In the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon
unseeded Gustavo Kuerten won yet another tight match against
top seed Marat Safin, winning 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3) in their
seventh career encounter. Lyon is the Brazilian's second
semifinal of the year, following his win at home in Salvador
last month.

"I have been playing well for about four weeks coming into
the Lyon event. Slowly things are coming together for me and
I am really enjoying tennis again. Marat and I push each
other to play a higher level of tennis. I was a bit lucky on
some points in the tiebreaker but made a big difference in
the match," Kurten said after the win.

2002 Lyon champion Arnaud Clement beat the last remaining
seed, No. 3 Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 7-6(3) to advance to
his second semifinal of the year. This was Clement's fifth
win over his good friend and fellow countryman.

Danish qualifier Kristian Pless advanced to his first
semifinals since Chennai last year by defeating Frenchman
Nicolas Escude 6-3, 6-1 on Friday. Pless needed only 48
minutes to win, proving that the second-round win over the
defending Lyon champion Ivan Ljubicic was no fluke.

"Today I played my best tennis of the week. My serve and
returns worked very well. I think the pressure was on him to
do well in front of his home crowd," Pless said after the
victory.

In the semifinals the Dane faces another Frenchman, last
week's Moscow titlist Paul-Henri Mathieu, who defeated Jonas
Bjorkman 7-5, 6-4 in his 11th straight match win.

"Physically I am a bit tired but mentally I am still there,
ready to play. The key was to keep holding my serve and to
keep hitting good returns and passing shots. I served well
all match and managed to get a break of serve in each set.
Luckily, I found some extra focus at 6-5 in the first and
5-4 in the second to break Jonas' serve," said Mathieu in
his post-match press conference.