Malisse cruises into semi-finals at Delray Beach

MIAMI, Feb 2 (Reuters) Belgian Xavier Malisse today thrashed Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-1 in the first quarter-final at the Delray Beach International as rankings trumped round robin aggregates.

Malisse will play American Vince Spadea or Germany's Tommy Haas, who clash later today, in tomorrow's semi-finals.

Garcia-Lopez, ranked 65th in the world, barely made an impression on Malisse, the world number 31, claiming only two service games during the match.

Malisse had only just scraped into the quarter-finals, a beneficiary of the round robin elimination method being trialled at various ATP tournaments this year starting in Delray.

The Belgian made the last eight with the second lowest aggregate winning percentage of the tournament, 56.9 per cent, against Garcia-Lopez's 64 per cent.

Malisse was in total control today in the 80-degree heat of South Florida as he demolished his opponent.

Garcia-Lopez lost his first and second service games before regaining his composure to win his third service game but he was then broken again to hand the first set to Malisse.

The Spaniard had a more promising start to the second set when he won his first service game before being broken twice more, taking the score to 5-1.

That left Malisse needing to hold his serve to take the second set which he duly did as Garcia-Lopez powered a return into the net to lose the match in less than an hour.

World number nine Haas is world-ranked higher than Malisse but was the only player with a poorer overall performance in the tournament with a round robin average of 55.1 per cent.

Spadea, although ranked only 63rd in the world, outperformed Haas and Malisse at Delray Beach by averaging 61.9 per cent.

Reuters SBA VP0150