Tennis: Delighted Kiwi in doubles semis

Marcus Daniell has conquered his nerves to help beat the third seeds. Photo / Greg Bowker

It's the sort of sentence that is usually preceded by the line "do not adjust your spectacles". Or followed by "yeah right". Either way, it is true - New Zealand has a player in the Heineken Open semifinals.

Sure, it might be only in doubles, but who cares?

Certainly not Marcus Daniell, a late wildcard selection to partner Romanian Horia Tecau.

Playing the Spanish pair of Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers, the Kiwi/Romanian combo somehow recovered from a 5-0 deficit in the decisive super tiebreak to take out the third seeds 3-6, 7-6 (10-8) last night.

Daniell, ranked 670 in doubles and 767 in singles, needed only one word to describe how it felt beating a team that included world No 16 Robredo, the Heineken Open's top singles seed - "amazing".

"I had some advice before the game to more than usual target [Robredo] because if you hit a few winners it is not like it is Tommy Robredo in your head, it is just another player," Daniell said.

"You show yourself that it can be done."

That said, the 20-year-old from Masterton did suffer a touch of stage fright after the match was moved to centre court after an early end to the day's scheduled matches.

"In the warm-up I felt like an absolute fool. I was all shaky," he said.

"But when we started getting going the crowd was amazing. I'd never played in that sort of atmosphere before."

The last man into the doubles field, Daniell had to wait until the last possible minute to have his wildcard confirmed. And after being bundled out of singles qualifying in his first match he admitted his hopes for a run in the doubles were not high.

"I didn't really have any expectations," he said.

"I just wanted to play well and I guess that helped me relax. I played the big points quite well I think, so I'm very, very happy."

Having also dispatched the Statham brothers, Rubin and Oliver, in round one, Daniel and Tecau now face Johan Brunstrom (Sweden) and Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands Antilles) in a semifinal tomorrow.

It is the first time a Kiwi man has appeared in a semifinal in Auckland since Brett Steven made both the singles and doubles in 1999.

His efforts so far have earned Daniell a half share of a US$5530 ($7456) cheque and enough ranking points to make him New Zealand's top-ranked active doubles player.

"Anything can happen in doubles," Daniell said. "If we can beat these guys the sky is the limit."