Ancic Tames Beast, Eyes Masters Cup with St. Pete Win

Of the players vying for the final four spots at the year-end championship, only Ancic and Fernando Gonzalez in Basel have survived to the semifinals, with David Nalbandian losing Friday, James Blake withdrawing this week with illness, Nikolay Davydenko (a lock for Shanghai) suffering a foot injury, Marcos Baghdatis taking himself out of the race with a season-ending injury, and the Tommys, Robredo and Haas, suffering early-round losses.

If Ancic wins the St. Pete title he will move to the No. 9 spot in the ATP Race standings, 23 points behind No. 8 Tommy Robredo.

Ancic will next meet wildcard Ernest Gulbis in the Saturday semifinals, with the Latvian teen advancing to his very first ATP semifinal with a 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-2 win over Jan Hernych.

Defending champ Thomas Johansson reached only his first ATP semifinal of the year with a narrow 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over South African Wesley Moodie. Johansson will next face Russian wildcard Igor Kunitsyn, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Italian Potito Starace.

Kunitsyn entered St. Pete with a 7-14 tour-level win-loss on the year, recently reaching the semifinals in Moscow before losing to countryman Marat Safin. The last few months have been a big turn-around for the Russian, who played six of his first seven events of the year at Challengers where he failed to reach a semi.

Both semifinals will be first-time meetings. A semifinal loss for Ancic Saturday would mean he would have to reach the Paris final next week to even have a hope of qualifying for the year-end championship.