Kuerten cruises into last four

ROME, MAY 12. Top- seed Gustavo Kuerten rolled through his second victory in a day, booking into the semifinals of the $ 2.95- million Masters Series, Rome with a victory over Spain's Alex Corretja 6-2, 6-3.

Tournament favourite Kuerten, the two-time French Open winner from Brazil, won his night-time match on Friday against the tenth-seed from Barcelona to run his career record in the series to 4-2 including a Rome semifinal win a year ago.

Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti ended the hopes of Spanish qualifier Jacobo Diaz in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 decision in another quarterfinal encounter.

Swedish-Sicilian Andreas Vinciguerra let his Latin half loose, with a domineering 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 win over Israeli Harel levy to reach the last four.

The 20-year-old from Malmo, whose Sicilian father runs a pizza restaurant there, produced his best career performance at a big event.

Earlier, Ferrero, the eighth seed with two clay-court titles to his credit already this season, hammered South African veteran Wayne Ferreria into quick submission 6-0, 6-2 to advance.

In the morning, the curly-haired Kuerten rolled over Argentine Franco Squillari in a third-round South American shootout 6-1, 6- 2.

Kuerten, who won the event in 1999 and owns two French Open crowns, took just 58 minutes to dispatch Squillari, winner of three career titles on clay - all in Germany.

Kuerten served out the victory, set up by his sixth ace of the morning, and concluded with an unforced error from Squillari.

Vinciguerra has surpassed all Swedish expectations with his surprise performance at the Foro Italico. Seeded compatriots including holder Magnus Norman and No. 13 Thomas Enqvist quickly fell to the wayside this week.

With the last of their home players out, Vinciguerra has been all-but-adopted by the Roman crowd as one of their own. The Swede spent childhood holidays at his father's former hometown of Taormina on the east side of Sicily and spoke some Italian - which he has now forgotten.

''I love it,`` he said of the Sicilian city. ''I have my cousins and the - I mean the family of my father is living there. So I've been there. When I was young, I was there every year. Now it's tough that I play. But if I have time, I think I'm going there this year.``

With this weekend's tennis his main concern, Vinciguerra is obviously concentrating on his game. He spent 65 minutes in grinding down Levy - conqueror of Pete Sampras in the first round - saving a pair of Levy set points before claiming the set on a winning pass down the line.

The second got much easier, with 20-year-old Vincigueerra dominating the disheartened Israeli.

The results (quarterfinals): Gustavo Kuerten bt Alex Corretja 6- 2, 6-3; Nicolas Lapentti bt Jacobo Diaz in a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Earlier results: Juan Carlos Ferrero bt Wayne Ferreira 6-0, 6-2; Andreas Vinciguerra bt Harel Levy 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.

- DPA

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