Australian Lleyton Hewitt recorded his 100th grasscourt victory on Wednesday but one of the game's most tenacious warriors landed a bloodless win after Kazakhstan's Evgeny Korolev retired with a suspected shoulder injury. The 2002 Wimbledon champion comfortably won the first two sets 6-4, 6-4 and was leading 3-0 in the third when his opponent called it a day.
Lukas Rosol beat Evgeny Korolev 7-6, 67, 7-6, 6-2 to give the Czech Republic an unassailable 3-1 lead over Kazakhstan and propel the defending champions into the Davis Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
World number one Roger Federer breezed into the Swiss Indoors semi-finals on Friday but the home crowd's hopes of an all-Swiss final were dashed when Novak Djokovic rallied to beat Stanislas Wawrinka.
Top-seeded American Mardy Fish outgunned Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev 7-5, 6-3 to clinch his third ATP title at the Delray Beach International Championships on Sunday.
The second semi-final at the Las Vegas Open will be between Russian Evgeny Korolev and Austrian fourth seed Juergen Melzer.
The Safin siblings surged through the Australian Open draw on Wednesday, women's third seed Dinara and men's former world No 1 Marat sliding into round three. Big brother Safin set up a mouth-watering showdown with second seed Roger Federer after he crushed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, while Safina, chasing her maiden Grand Slam title, beat fellow-Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-7, 6-3, 6-0. Federer scored a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia's Evgeny Korolev.
Roger Federer set up a juicy third round clash with former Australian Open champion Marat Safin after finally subduing a stubborn Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday.
Top seed and two-times champion Andy Roddick moved into the last eight of the Indianapolis Championships with a 6-3 6-2 win over Russia's Evgeny Korolev on Wednesday.