Last seeded players lose in Sydney

SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Upsets by Marcos Baghdatis and Denis Istomin in Thursday's quarterfinals ousted the last seeded players from the Apia International tournament in Australia.

Baghdatis eliminated No. 1-seeded Juan Martin del Potro 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 and Istomin was a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) winner over third-seeded Richard Gasquet.

Baghdatis won one more -- 68-67 -- point than del Potro and took the match with a second-set break. Each player had a break in the first set before Baghdatis claimed the tiebreaker on the 16th point.

Istomin was on the court nearly two hours before finishing off his first win over Gasquet in three career meetings. Each dropped serve twice in the seesaw second set.

Also Thursday, Jarkko Nieminen beat Bobby Reynolds 6-3, 6-3 with five breaks in nine receiving games and Julien Benneteau defeated Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 6-3 despite being good on just half of his first serves.

Istomin goes against Nieminen in one semifinal Friday while Baghdatis plays Benneteau in the other.

Friday's winners are to meet Saturday in the title match with the champion earning $78,360 and the runner-up taking home $41,290. The semifinal losers each receive $22,365.