Canas, Novak in Shanghai Open semis

Shanghai:

Third seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina booked his semifinal spot in the Shanghai Open with a 6-3 6-4 win over Brazilian seventh seed Ricardo Mello on Friday. The Argentine faced a tough task against Mello, who won his first title in Florida earlier this month. After conceding the first set 6-3, Mello dug in to save service in the third game of the second, battling to deuce 11 times before finally prevailing as wind and rain shook the Xian Xia Tennis Centre's new retractable roof. But the Argentinian went on to break Mello easily in the fifth game to take the set 6-4 and the win the match. Canas now faces second seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic in the semi-finals. Novak reached the last four with a 6-3 6-3 win over American Jan-Michael Gambill, the eighth seed. Novak and Canas are tied 1-1 in their previous matches, with Canas winning 6-4 6-0 in their last meeting at the 2002 Stuttgart semifinals. In one of Friday's other quarterfinals, Denmark's Kenneth Carlsen outlasted Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 6-1. In the last four, the Dane will face Lars Burgsmuller of Germany, who defeated Italy's Davide Sanguinetti in Friday's fourth quarterfinal.

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