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De Bakker makes Barcelona semifinals

Swede Robin Soderling, shown in a tournament in March, was among players advancing to the semifinals of the Barcelona Open with wins Friday. UPI/David Silpa
Swede Robin Soderling, shown in a tournament in March, was among players advancing to the semifinals of the Barcelona Open with wins Friday. UPI/David Silpa | License Photo

BARCELONA, Spain, April 23 (UPI) -- Thiemo de Bakker delivered the lone upset in Friday's quarterfinals play of the $2.7 million Barcelona Open tennis tournament in Spain.

De Bakker was coming off a third-round win Thursday over seventh-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero in which he needed to win two tie-breakers to claim the three-set match. He went the distance again Friday, knocking off No. 3-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

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De Bakker faced only one break-point situation outside of the second set and won 59 percent of the points in the first and third sets.

He advanced to Saturday's semifinals against No. 2-seeded Robin Soderling, whose 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinals triumph over Eduardo Schwank was his third straight-set win of the tournament. Schwank forced just one service break chance and Soderling saved it.

The other semifinal will send fifth-seeded Fernando Verdasco against No. 8-seed David Ferrer. Verdasco was a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) winner over Ernests Gulbis while Ferrer took out Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-0 in Friday's matches.

The semifinal winners advance to Sunday's title match of the clay-court tournament, with the champion taking home $381,000 and the runner-up $192,000. Saturday's losers earn $97,000 as semifinalists.

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