Unseeded Baghdatis reaches semis

Baghdatis is a former junior world number one

Unseeded Marcos Baghdatis survived a fightback from seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic to reach the last four at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

After claiming the first two sets Baghdatis, 20, lost the next two before finally winning 6-4 6-2 4-6 3-6 6-3.

Both players had football shirt-wearing fans cheering them on, creating a noisy atmosphere as the Cypriot reached his first Grand Slam semi-final.

Baghdatis now plays David Nalbandian, who beat Fabrice Santoro 7-6 6-0 6-0.

After being comprehensively outplayed for the first two sets Ljubicic slowly began to find his best form in the third, finally breaking Baghdatis - who knocked out Andy Roddick in the fourth round - at 5-4 to take the set.

With the momentum behind him the Croatian then broke in the fourth game of the fourth set on the way to levelling the match.

I'm in semis this year and I hope to win it David Nalbandian

The crucial point in the fifth set came when Baghdatis, forced wide of the tramlines by a Ljubicic backhand, whipped a stunning forehand cross court to break serve and take a 3-1 lead.

From there games went with serve as Baghdatis continued his remarkable run to the last four in Melbourne.

The Cypriot said thinking too much after going two sets up nearly cost him the match.

"I started thinking a lot, having doubts in my head," said Baghdatis.

"He started serving well, got some confidence. It was going so fast, I couldn't control the game.

"I think it's getting crazy. All of the people are watching my match, especially my parents. I want to say 'hi, I love you very much'."

Earlier Nalbandian reached the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time with a straight-sets win over the veteran Frenchman Santoro.

Santoro, playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the age of 33, broke the fourth seed at 4-3 in the first set.

But Nalbandian produced an array of fierce groundstrokes to break the Frenchman twice and take the opener.

From then on Nalbandian dictated the match as Santoro crumbled to defeat without winning another game, the Argentine wrapping up the victory in one hour and 41 minutes.

Despite the one-sided scoreline, the contest was full of quality with the players making just 32 unforced errors between them.

"Fabrice has a very special game," said Nalbandian. "It's not easy to come and hit winners from the first point.

"In the first set I was a bit nervous but when I got a bit of confidence, I started hitting harder and better.

"Now I'm in semis this year and I hope to win it."