Russia's Nikolay Davydenko plays a shot to Germany's Tommy Haas. Picture / Reuters
NEW YORK - Russian Nikolay Davydenko produced a stirring comeback as he recovered from two sets down to beat German Tommy Haas 4-6 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 to reach the US Open tennis semifinals today.
The seventh seed was outplayed for two sets but Haas, who won back-to-back fifth-set tiebreaks
to reach the last eight, tired as the match wore on and Davydenko held his nerve to reach the semi-finals in New York for the first time.
"I think I was lucky," Davydenko said.
"But it was tough, I was 5-2 (up in the final set) then break point and 5-4 and I didn't know what I could do, but I am happy to be in the semi-finals."
Haas won four straight games to win the first set and looked on course for his first semi-final at Flushing Meadows when he took the second on a tiebreak.
But Davydenko refused to give in and one break in each set helped him to level the match.
After trading breaks at the start of the deciding set, Davydenko broke twice to lead 5-2 but Haas saved a match point and broke back and reduced the deficit to 5-4.
Haas then had two break points to level at 5-5 but Davydenko held on to set up a semi-final against either defending champion Roger Federer or American fifth seed James Blake.
- REUTERS
