No. 1 Nalbandian, No. 3 Nieminen advance in Stockholm; No. 2 Ancic withdraws

Top-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian and third-seeded Finland native Jarkko Nieminen (pictured) both won of Friday at the If Stockholm Open in Sweden to set up a semifinal clash on Saturday. Japanese rising young talent Kei Nishikori and No. 4 seeded Swede Robin Soderling also advanced on Friday.

The 26-year-old Nalbandian, who is currently ranked No. 7 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, easily took care of No. 7 seed Albert Montanes of Spain, 6-4, 6-1, in 63 minutes to advance to his fourth semifinal of the year. The Argentine hammered six aces, while losing only six points on his first serve throughout the quarterfinal match. Nalbandian was successful breaking serve on four of seven chances, while Montanes couldn’t convert on his lone break point opportunity. Nalbandian, who won the title in Buenos Aires earlier this year, improves his season record to 32-13 that includes a 12-5 record on hard courts. In the semifinals, Nalbandian will take on Nieminen for the 10th time of his career, with the Argentine owning a 5-4 series edge.

Currently ranked No. 33 in the world, Nieminen beat Oscar Hernandez, 6-1, 6-4, in convincing fashion. In the match that lasted just under one and a half hours, Nieminen was able to break serve five times, while the Spaniard could only break twice. With the win, the Finland star reaches his third straight semifinal in Stockholm and improves to 14-8 at the event. Nieminen hopes to even the series edge with Nalbandian and reach his 9th ATP level final of his career.

Other notable quarterfinal winners included Nishikori who was granted a free pass to the semifinals after No. 2 Mario Ancic withdrew prior to the match due to sickness. Since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals, Ancic has only played two matches before coming to Stockholm due to recurrence of glandular fever. Nishikori will next meet Soderling, who defeated No. 5 seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 6-2, 7-5, in 74 minutes.

Soderling hammered 13 aces compared to Schuettler’s three aces, while also breaking serve on all three chances he had. The Swedish citizen who improved to 11-5 in Stockholm looks to reach his 8th career ATP final when he meets the 18-year-old Japenese star. Despite reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and recently in Beijing, the 32-year-old German falls to 19-20 on the season.