American Young reaches second ATP semifinal

BANGKOK, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- American Donald Young dropped just three games Friday in joining three top seeds in the semifinals of the PTT Thailand Open tennis tournament.

Young, No. 55 in the world, ran past qualifier Go Soeda 6-1, 6-2 in 56 minutes. Young was good on 88 percent of his first serves and lost eight points total in his eight service games. He broke Soeda's serve four times in seven games.

Saturday will mark the second ATP tournament semifinal for Young, who will next go against world No. 9 Gael Monfils. Monfils won the only previous match against Young 6-1, 6-1, but that was more than three years ago. Young made the semifinals of the ATP event in Washington this summer.

Monfils, seeded second in Bangkok, was a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) winner over Jarkko Nieminen in his quarterfinal. Nieminen converted both of his break-point chances but Monfils answered with three breaks of his own.

Top-seeded and No 4-ranked Andy Murray earned a spot in the semis by beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4. Murray going 3-for-3 on break opportunities was the difference in the match.

No. 3-seeded Gilles Simon claimed the fourth semifinal spot, beating Matthias Bachinger 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Murray is 7-0 versus Simon since a loss in 2007, the first time the two met. Three of Murray's wins came this year.