Melzer ousts Korolev at Tennis Channel

Fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria ended Evgeny Korolev's eventful run in the Tennis Channel Open on Saturday, beating the unseeded Russian 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the semifinals.

Not only was Korolev the lone unseeded semifinalist, he was the only player among the final four to lose a round-robin match (to Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina).

But Korolev first stood out when he defeated top-seeded defending champion James Blake 6-2, 6-4, in his opening-round match on Tuesday.

Korolev initially was declared the round-robin group winner based on his victory over Blake, but the ATP Tour reversed that decision on Thursday before switching back to Korolev on Friday.

Korolev came back to take a 5-3 lead in the third set before Melzer rallied to tie it at 5-5. After that, Melzer never trailed. He took a 6-5 lead before Korolev knotted the score at 6. Melzer then took a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, which he won 7-4.

"He had been serving extremely well in the first tiebreaker," Melzer said. "I wanted to put pressure on him in his first ATP semifinals. In the third set, I was thinking that he had to win it; I'm not going to give it to you. That was the difference."

Melzer, ranked 31st by the ATP, now advanced to his sixth ATP final. He will face No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia or No. 3 Marat Safin of Russia.

"Jurgen is a really good player," said Korolev, ranked 99th by the ATP. "He's fighting for every ball. But I'm happy to be here. To beat James, to beat Querrey and to reach the semifinals for the first time, (that shows that) I played really good tennis. I'm feeling good now."

In doubles, the ATP's No. 1 team of Bob and Mike Bryan advanced to the final by defeating Ramon Delgado of Paraguay and Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil 6-4, 6-1. They will face the winner of Saturday night's semifinal between James Auckland/Ashley Fisher and Jonathan Erlich/Andy Ram.

The Bryan twins, who are the defending event champions, are 20-4 at the Open, where they have won their last 11 matches. They are currently the holders of five Grand Slam titles and 34 career crowns.

In the women's event, Mirage Cup at the Tennis Channel Open, top-seeded Akiko Morigami of Japan reached the final by defeating No. 7 Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-1. Morigami will face unseeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, a 6-0, 5-7, 6-1 winner over No. 4 Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine.