Tennis-Haas and Soderling reach Dubai semis

DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) Tommy Haas maintained his winning streak by beatig Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-0 6-2 today to reach the semi-finals of the Dubai Open.

The fifth-seeded German, who won the Memphis title last week, claimed his 11th straight win, and his 16th victory in 18 matches this season.

Haas was too powerful and Rochus too passive, with disastrous consequences for the Belgian, who had upset world number three Nikolay Davydenko in the second round. Giving up just two points on serve in the first set, Haas won the first nine games.

''It was one of those days today where from the beginning I felt the ball quite well and I moved well from the baseline,'' said Haas after his 49-minute victory. ''I never really gave him the opportunity to play his game.

''That was my game plan, but obviously to be convincing for a long period of time, for two sets, I'm really happy about that.'' Robin Soderling, a former European junior champion, held off a strong challenge from Frenchman Fabrice Santoro to reach his third semi-final of the year and his second in two weeks. The Swede, who lost in the Doha and Marseille semi-finals, won 6-1 6-7 6-0.

After dominating the opening set by winning the first five games, Soderling led 3-1 in the second before the wily Santoro staged a fightback.

Santoro mixed up his game to keep the Swede guessing and took the tiebreak, but he then dropped his serve in the second game of the final set. He had the opportunity to recover in the next game, but failed to convert four break points.

''I think I started off the match really, really well and played some great tennis for one-and-a-half sets,'' Soderling told reporters. ''But that's the way Santoro plays. He makes you play bad and he really made me play bad today.

''You really have to stay focused all the time, but against a player like Fabrice it's even more important. He plays like no other on the tour. No point is the same. He's coming to the net, he's hitting dropshots, he's hitting slice, short, long, everything, so you get no rhythm at all. He's a tough guy to play.'' Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were playing their quarter-final matches later on Thursday.

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