Ljubicic upset by Lee in China Open quarters

Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic stumbled out after suffering an upset 6-3, 7-6 (3) quarterfinals loss to South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik.

Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic stumbled out of the China Open on Friday after suffering an upset 6-3, 7-6 (3) quarterfinals loss to South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik.

HT Image

Ljubicic peppered Lee with 12 aces at Beijing Tennis Centre, but the Korean No. 8 kept his nerve. After dominating the first set, Lee held out a resurgent Ljubicic to book his semifinals spot.

Lee will next face fourth-seeded Mario Ancic after the Croatian recovered from a poor start to grind out a hard fought 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Slovakian No. 5 Dominik Hrbaty.

After losing the first set, Ancic fought off three break points in the second to force the tiebreaker and level the match. Ancic, who has been sidelined since Wimbledon due to an off-court injury, found his rhythm in the third set and closed out the game with an ace.

Ancic slammed 13 aces against two for Hrbaty, who conceded eight double faults.

In other quarterfinals later Friday, second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia plays Thai No. 6 Paradorn Srichaphan and third-seeded Marco Baghdatis of Cyprus plays Thailand's Danai Udomchoke.