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Hewitt and Ram advance to Newport semifinals

NEWPORT, R.I. — The first two semifinal spots at the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships were filled today by Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Newport’s 2009 singles and doubles champion Rajeev Ram. Hewitt defeated Israel’s Dudi Sela in straight sets to make his first ATP World Tour semifinal since June 2010, when he won the Gerry Weber Open in Halle. Ram upset No. 2 seed Kei Nishikori.

In the final quarterfinal matches of the tournament, Ryan Harrison advanced to his second Newport quarterfinal (also in 2010), by defeating fellow American Jesse Levine. This is Harrison’s fourth quarterfinal of the season.

In the semifinals, Harrison will face German qualifier Benjamin Becker, who upset No. 3 seed and world No. 23 Milos Raonic 6-3, 6-3.

“If you qualify you have three good matches under your belt,” explained Becker. “You know the courts, which is a little bit of an advantage.”

On Friday, all matches will be played on Center Court. There will be two singles matches, including a meeting of No. 1 seed John Isner and qualifier Izak Van Der Merwe. Three doubles matches will be played, including a meeting of the Japanese Olympic team of Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda versus the British Olympic team of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.

Looking to the weekend, the the International Tennis Hall of Fame is gearing up for the annual Induction Ceremony on Saturday, July 14 at 12 pm. The honor of Hall of Fame induction will be presented to former world No. 1’s Jennifer Capriati and Guga Kuerten, Spanish tennis great Manuel Orantes, tennis industry innovator Mike Davies, and the late wheelchair champion Randy Snow.

RESULTS - Thursday, July 12, 2012 Click for a downloadable PDF of the draw.

Singles - Quarterfinals R Ram (USA) d [2] K Nishikori (JPN) 76(6) 63 [WC] L Hewitt (AUS) d D Sela (ISR) 64 63

Second Round [Q] B Becker (GER) d [3] M Raonic (CAN) 63 63 [6] [WC] R Harrison (USA) d J Levine (USA) 63 64

Doubles - Quarterfinals [3] S Gonzalez (MEX) / S Lipsky (USA) d A Bogomolov Jr. (RUS) / G Muller (LUX) 76(6) 67(3) 10-7 [Alt] R Klaasen (RSA) / I Van der Merwe (RSA) d J Fruttero (USA) / D Istomin (UZB) 63 62

ORDER OF PLAY - Friday, July 13, 2012 Click for a downloadable PDF of the Order of Play.

CENTER COURT start 11:00 am T Huey (PHI) / D Inglot (GBR) vs [WC] C Guccione (AUS) / L Hewitt (AUS) [1] J Isner (USA) vs [Q] I Van der Merwe (RSA) [Q] B Becker (GER) vs [6] [WC] R Harrison (USA) K Nishikori (JPN) / G Soeda (JPN) vs [2] C Fleming (GBR) / R Hutchins (GBR) [Alt] R Klaasen (RSA) / I Van der Merwe (RSA) vs [3] S Gonzalez (MEX) / S Lipsky (USA)

Posted on July 12, 2012
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