Safin makes semis

Safin is the defending champion in St Petersburg

Top two seeds Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov reached the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open on Friday.

The two Russians were comfortable winners but Belarussian Max Mirnyi - who beat Greg Rusedski in the previous round - was beaten.

Kafelnikov beat sixth seed Fabrice Santoro of France 6-1 6-4.

Defending champion Safin hit 14 aces on his way to seeing off Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia 6-3 7-6 (7-0).

The 21-year-old Safin has to win the event to keep alive his chances of qualifying for the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Sydney.

Rainer Schuettler of Germany beat Mirnyi 7-5 6-3 to book his place in the last four.

The last semi-final spot was claimed by Michael Llodra who beat Austria's Stefan Koubek 6-3 6-3.

Johansson was beaten by a qualifier

It is the first time the Frenchman has reached the last four in an ATP event.

Meanwhile, at the Stockholm Open, Finnish qualifier Jarkko Nieminen caused an upset by putting out defending champion and third seed Thomas Johansson in the quarter-finals.

Nieminen, playing in only his second ATP tournament, was a comfortable 6-2 6-4 winner over the Swede.

Fourth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina also reached the semi-finals with a 6-3 6-1 defeat of South African eighth seed Wayne Ferreira.

In the remaining quarter-finals, fifth seed Thomas Enqvist, the last home hope left in the draw, marched on with a 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 7-5 win over Chilean Marcelo Rios.

And sixth seed Sjeng Schalken beat Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic 6-3 7-6 (7-3).