Argentine Juan Martin del Potro reached his first final since Vienna last season, with a dominating 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of second seed Tomas Berdych, at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis tournament on Saturday.
The World No. 10 del Potro dominated against Berdych, who had taken a clean 8-0 record indoors into the contest at the Ahoy stadium. Berdych, ranked seventh, came to Rotterdam with the Montpellier trophy in hand earlier in the month.
But there was no stopping del Potro, who was taken to three sets in the first round by Michael Llodra, but who has won the rest of his contests in straight sets.
del Potro broke in the first game and won seven games straight from midway through the first, until Berdych finally registered a game to trail 1-5 in the second.
Two games more was all it took for del Potro to fire in his ninth ace on match point, to advance in an hour and a quarter of one-way tennis.
Istomin upsets Roddick
Unseeded Uzbek Denis Istomin upset American Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-4 to book a place in the last four of the San Jose Open, on Friday.
Hampered by an ankle injury suffered on Wednesday, Roddick, ranked 17th in the world, was second best against his 61st ranked opponent and fell to defeat inside 76 minutes on the indoor hard court.
The results :
At Rotterdam (ABN Amro World Tennis tournament): Semifinals : Juan Martin del Potro bt Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-1.
Quarterfinals : Nikolay Davydenko bt Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-3; Roger Federer bt Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 7-6(2); Juan Martin del Potro bt Viktor Troicki 6-0, 6-1.
At Sao Paulo (ATP Brazil Open): Quarterfinals : Nicolas Almagro bt Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-2; Albert Ramos bt Fernando Verdasco 7-6(5), 6-3; Filippo Volandri bt David Nalbandian 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; Thomaz Bellucci bt Leonardo Mayer 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
At San Jose (ATP SAP Open): Quarterfinals : Ryan Harrison bt Dimitar Kutrovsky 6-1, 6-4; Milos Raonic vs Kevin Anderson 7-5, 7-6(3); Denis Istomin bt Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-4; Julien Benneteau bt Steve Darcis 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
At Doha (WTA Qatar Total Open): Quarterfinals : Victoria Azarenka bt Yanina Wickmayer 6-0, 6-4; Marion Bartoli bt Lucie Safarova 7-5, 4-6, 6-1; Agnieszka Radwanska bt Christina McHale 6-1, 6-1.
