Nishikori rallies to reach semis in Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Defending champion Kei Nishikori of Japan rallied to beat Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr. 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships on Friday.

The top-seeded Nishikori will next play 35-year-old American Michael Russell, who upset third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (6) in another quarterfinal match.

Bogomolov broke Nishikori for a 3-2 lead in the second set only to drop his next two service games and lose the set. In the third, Nishikori fought off three break points to hold serve and broke Bogomolov in consecutive games to take a 5-2 lead.

Fourth-seeded Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan beat American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov 6-1, 6-4 in another match and will next face Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 6-3 winner over American Jack Sock.

Russell needed nearly two hours to finish off the former world No. 1 Hewitt. He was broken after double-faulting twice while serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set and also failed to convert a couple of match points in the tiebreaker before finally closing it out.

Russell is the second-oldest player ranked in the top 100 behind Tommy Haas, who will turn 36 in April.

Hewitt fell short in his attempt to reach 600 career match victories this week in Memphis. He needed to win the title to join Roger Federer (932) and Rafael Nadal (669) as only the third active player to reach the milestone.

Karlovic, who has five career titles, served up 16 aces in knocking the 21-year-old Sock out of his second quarterfinal this year. (AP)