Mark Nielsen's run continued at the US$15,000 Hamilton Futures yesterday.
Nielsen, 27, won his quarter-final singles, defeating the third seed Fred Hemmes of the Netherlands, 6-4, 6-3.
The win emphasised Nielsen's worth. While all other Kiwis failed to surpass the second round, Nielsen, who spends a large part of the year in Japan, kept the home flag flying.
Nielsen was down 0-3 in the first set and then 2-4 down. However, he played some steady tennis while Hemmes lacked consistency.
In the second set, Nielsen was 1-3 down but then won the next five games in a row to seal the match.
"Under normal circumstances you really shouldn't win those sets. Not two in a row anyway," said Nielsen.
Last year at the Heineken Open, Hemmes qualified beating a former top 20 player, Andrei Pavel, in the final round before accounting for Robin Soderling and then losing to Vince Spadea in the second round.
Ranked at 616 but a former top 200 player, Nielsen kept his cool while Hemmes, now at 320 but also a former top 200 player, struggled with the wind and his own shots.
"For some reason I still felt good on the court. I was down but didn't feel bad," said Nielsen. "I'd played club matches in the same team as him for a couple of years so I knew how he played. I decided to slice backhands to him and I noticed he missed and I kept on doing it and he over-hit everything."
The triumph gives Nielsen plenty of matches in the build-up for next week's Futures at North Harbour. It also gives Davis Cup coach Bruce Derlin some satisfaction for the coming tie against Kazakhstan, also at North Harbour.
Nielsen now faces another Dutchman, Melvyn Op Der Heijde, the second seed in the semis.
"I know Melvyn quite well and lost to him on clay once. It will be an interesting match."
Op Der Heijde advanced with a hard-fought straight victory over Korean qualifier Sun-Yong Kim.
Top seed Vasilis Mazarakis of Greece defeated Korea's Woong-Sun Jun, 7-6 (2), 6-2, and will play fourth seed Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan, who won a drawn-out encounter over sixth seed John-Paul Fruttero (US) 7-5, 0-6, 6-3.
Tennis: Nielsen comes from behind to get to semifinals
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