Tennis: Defending champ out of Heineken Open

John Isner. Photo / Getty Images

Defending champion John Isner is out of the Heineken Open tennis tournament in Auckland.

The big-serving American went out 6-4 7-6 in his quarterfinal clash today with former world No 3 David Nalbandian of Argentina.

Isner put up an improved performance to the one which saw him come through somewhat fortunately against Robin Haase of the Netherlands yesterday.

But the Argentine has looked as good as anyone this tournament and he was rarely in trouble today, taking the only break of the first set and dominating the second set tiebreak 7-3.

Nalbandian's semifinal opponent will be second seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who beat French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 7-6 6-7 6-2.

The Frenchman was ranked 83 at the beginning of the week and needed to go through three rounds of qualifying to earn a spot in the main draw this week.

But he had improved 100 spots last year and he looked a player of class when beating fifth seed Juan Monaco and last year's beaten finalist Arnaud Clement in the first two rounds.

Both players, Almagro in particular, were bothered by line calls during the match but Almagro's experience told in the end.

The first two sets went to tiebreaks, Almagro comfortably taking the first and Mannarino dominating the second.

But Almagro's experience told through in the third set as Mannarino's schedule possibly caught up with him.

Top seed David Ferrer, the 2007 title winner, also earned a semifinal spot when he beat eighth seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3 6-7 6-3.

Ferrer's game was the expected clash between Kohlschreiber's aggression and Ferrer's seemingly endless running and retrieving.

"I think Philipp played very good. Maybe in the second set I (did) not serve like the first set and the third set, but with Philipp it's the same always when I play with him, a long match," Ferrer said.

Ferrer had a good 2010, ending up in the top 10 for the second time, but he said it was tough taking on most people in the top 70.

"I think the top five are at another level; Murray, Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Soderling, at this moment it's difficult to pass them," he said.

"But tennis now is very level. Maybe I am seven in the world but yesterday I played with one guy at 70 and I needed to fight a lot to beat him."

Ferrer's semifinal opponent will be the winner of tonight's clash between seventh seeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci and the unseeded Colombian Santiago Giraldo.

- NZPA