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Del Potro, Fish, Nishikori in Delray Beach semis

Del Potro, Fish, Nishikori in Delray Beach semis

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP)—Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina reached his third consecutive semifinal by beating fifth-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-4, 6-4 in the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships quarterfinals on Friday.

Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, reached the San Jose and Memphis semifinals the past two weeks. He’ll face Mardy Fish, the 2009 Delray Beach champion, in the next round.

“Three semifinals in three weeks, so it’s great for my comeback,” said Del Potro, who had an entire season wiped out by a right wrist injury. “I hope I play well tomorrow against Mardy.”

The second-seeded Fish reached his fourth career Delray Beach semifinal by beating qualifier Alejandro Falla of Brazil 6-1, 6-4 on Friday.

The other Saturday semifinal will feature Kei Nishikori, the 2008 Delray Beach champion, and sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Tipsarevic defeated Ivan Dodig of Croatia 7-6 (0), 6-1 in the quarterfinals, while the 66th-ranked Nishikori beat Ryan Sweeting 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4.

Tipsarevic won their only prevoius match in the quarterfinals at Chennai earlier this year.

Del Potro never offered Anderson a break point opportunity in their match, taking advantage of both break points he was presented. Meanwhile, Fish was able to break Falla’s serve on three occasions—in the second and sixth games of the first set, and the first game of the second.

“I came out and took advantage of some errors he gave me and I played pretty clean,” Fish said. “I stepped it up some in my last two service games and closed it out.”

Tipsarevic saved all three break points he faced on serve, and successfully broke serve on both break point opportunities he had in the match.

Nishikori was able to save all three break points he faced on serve—one in the fourth game and two in the eighth game of the second set.

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