Sat Jul 12 14:01:30 2008

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Hanescu upsets Wawrinka to reach Gstaad final

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Gstaad, Switzerland (Sports Network) - Unseeded Victor Hanescu upset top- seeded Stanislas Wawrinka in Saturday's semifinals, while rain suspended the other semifinal match between Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Igor Andreev at the clay-court Swiss Open.

Romanian Hanescu ousted top-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at Roy Emerson Arena.

Hanescu served 12 aces and broke serve three times in total, ultimately just winning one point more than Wawrinka.

The 26-year-old Hanescu now stands at 9-14 for the season. This is the first time this season that Hanescu has made it past the second round of a tournament. World No. 10 Wawrinka, who had battled through his earlier matches in three sets, slips to 30-14 for the season.

Heading into the match, the world No. 80 Hanescu had a dismal 2-13 lifetime record against Top 10 players. Hanescu's last victory against a Top 10 player came three years ago, when he downed Mariano Puerta, the world No. 10 at the time, in Kitzbuhel.

Hanescu is through to his first ATP final since finishing runner-up to Gilles Simon at his home-town tournament in Bucharest last September. Hanescu came into Gstaad having not won back-to-back ATP main draw matches all season.

Hanescu will look to capture his first ATP title and become the first Romanian to win the Gstaad title since Ilie Nastase in 1973.

In the other semifinal match, Russian Andreev took the first set from Spaniard Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7-2), but Garcia-Lopez battled back and won the second set 7-5 to tie the match before rain suspended play.

Andreev and Garcia-Lopez will finish their match Sunday. The winner will face Hanescu in the final later on in the day, after the doubles final.

The 2008 Gstaad titlist will collect $102,000.