Tennis: Belgian delivers tasty treat by eliminating top seed

Think Belgium and Hercule Poirot and chocolates, not Olivier Rochus, spring to mind.

But for a time yesterday, Rochus was the Belgian on everyone's lips as he carried on his superb start to the ATP year by beating Heineken Open favourite and top seed Guillermo Coria to advance to today's semifinals.

Rochus, who made the semifinals at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide last week, beat Coria 6-4, 6-4 at the ASB Tennis Centre, mixing his tactics cleverly to avoid getting drawn into a long baseline duel with the machine-like Argentine.

To reach his fourth ATP final tomorrow, Rochus needs to beat qualifier Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic.

But already Rochus has got his year off to a flying start, jumping from No 71 to No 58 this week.

"It's been two unbelievable weeks for me," he said.

"Today I knew I had nothing to lose. If I beat him great, if I lost, I would be losing to a top-10 player."

Rochus lost his opening serve but barely put a foot wrong after that.

He broke Coria's serve three times, his court coverage matched the flying Argentine and his touch at the net was delightful.

"I knew I had to be aggressive, I knew I had to come to the net as often as possible. Even if I tried to do too much I knew it was the way to win."

Coria, who turned 23 yesterday, was magnanimous about an opponent who "played just too good".

"When you give your best out there you can't be too sad."

In fact, the loss could work to his advantage.

Having moved up one spot to world No 6 this week, Coria can now spend a couple of days in Melbourne fine-tuning his game before the Australian Open begins on Monday.

Last year he had to pull out before the second round with an abdominal strain. But he's keen to return next year.

He developed a good rapport with the crowd this week, and the idea of having a birthday here appeals to him.

Rochus turns 24 on Tuesday, but he's already celebrating a dream start to his year.