(Sunrise, FL) - Italy’s No. 3 player, and tournament No. 3 seed Andreas Seppi stepped onto stadium court Friday afternoon feeling a little weak – and it showed. German Simon Greul won the first set of the BMW Tennis Championship quarterfinal easily, 6-2. “My start was not very good,” Seppi admitted. “I made a lot of mistakes, especially on the first points. I had a long match yesterday, 7-6 in the third, and in the night I had a bit of a fever, so I was a little tired in the beginning.”

The second set was on serve until 2-1, when Greul served up two double faults, giving Seppi an early break. Seppi picked up another break on a string of Greul errors; then held at love to get the match to 4-1; and broke again to go up 5-1. The German still had some fight left – breaking back the next game; but Seppi held to win the second set 6-2. In set three – after Greul broke Seppi on his first serve, it was like déjà vu. Greul donated a couple more doubles and played a few loose points that gave the break back to Seppi at 2-1; followed by a hold at love for Seppi. The Italian found his groove and his passing shots, hitting clean winners when Greul approached the net. He won the third set 6-2 to close out the match.

“I was trying to be a little more aggressive, come more into the court, and get more confidence,” Seppi says, adding that in the past few weeks his passing shots haven’t been so good – but they worked fine in the last two sets Friday afternoon at Sunrise Tennis Club. “I’m also serving pretty good, and maybe that’s the key to winning this match today.”

In the marquee singles match Friday night – it was the big bomber versus the big swinger, as No. six seed Florian Mayer took on No. 4 seed Ivo Karlovic. The match went three tiebreaker sets – but they weren’t long sets. The points were short, with Ivo’s serve and volley game pitted against Mayer’s loopy passing shots and slices. Mayer managed a few brilliant lobs over Karlovic’s head – no small feat, considering Karlovic, at 6’ 10” is the tallest player on the tour. (He even has “6-10” stitched on his shirt).

And, Mayer got his racquet on a few of Karlovic’s missile-like serves – which sound like a gunshot. When Karlovic’s ball smacks the court, it sprays fuzz like a tiny yellow cloud.

“If you play three hours, and out of three hundred serves, anybody can return a few serves,” Karlovic said. “I was a little bit lucky also today that I won, so I’m happy. In the tiebreak it is also important to return, so I don’t know if it’s always true that the better server wins. So I was lucky that I hit a few returns in, and I won.”

Looking forward to tomorrow’s semi-final against No. 2 seed Dmitry Tursunov, Karlovic said, “Dmitry is a player that can play everything, all this heart you know, so I’m going to be extremely careful on my serve and on the return game, I’m going to try to play well and hopefully I win.”

TODAY’S QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS:
Singles:
(5) Alberto Martin (ESP) d. Jiri Vanek (CZE) 6-0, 6-2
(3) Andreas Seppi (ITA) d. Simon Greul (GER) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
(2) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) d. Rik DeVoest (RSA) 6-2, 7-6(4)
(4) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) d. (6) Florian Mayer (GER) 7-6(3), 6-7(6), 7-6(4)

Doubles:
Petr Pala (CZE)/Robin Vik (CZE) d. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)/Alberto Martin (ESP) 6-3, 6-2
Jordan Kerr (AUS)/Harel Levy (ISR) d. Lars Burgsmuller (GER)/Jiri Vanek (CZE) 6-4, 6-1

Last match Friday:
Rainer Schuettler (GER)/Janko Tipsarevic (SCG) vs Goran Dragicevic (USA)/Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

For later results – please click here.

Tomorrow’s semi-final singles matchups: (4) Ivo Karlovic (CRO) vs. (2) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS), (5) Alberto Martin (ESP) vs. (3) Andreas Seppi (ITA).

Saturday is also “Russell Reading Room Kids Day”. Kids get in free with an adult admission, and enjoy tennis games, lessons and prizes from 11:30 to 1:30 pm.