DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) _ Defending champion Mario Ancic beat Fabrice Santoro of France 6-4, 6-0 Thursday to reach the semifinals at the Ordina Open.
The third-seeded Croat will play Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, who advanced when Philipp Kohlschreiber retired with a shoulder injury while trailing 6-2, 3-0 at the grass-court event.
Florent Serra of France upset Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 and will play Jan Hernych in the other semifinal. The Czech beat Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-4, 6-4.
``I served really good throughout the match,'' Baghdatis said. ``I will certainly need it to get good points when I play Ancic.''
Ancic, who won his first ATP title at Den Bosch last year, has beaten Baghdatis in their only two matches. He will attempt to become the fourth player to win the title more than once.
Patrick Rafter won at Den Bosch three times in a row from 1998-2000, while Sjeng Schalken and Richard Krajicek have each won it twice.
In the women's event, top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia defeated fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Second-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia beat Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4. Schultz-McCarthy, 35, came out of retirement to play at the pre-Wimbledon event.
Safina will meet Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the semifinals. Daniilidou advanced when Paola Suarez of Argentina retired with a pulled left calf muscle after losing the first set 6-2.
Dementieva, a Den Bosch finalist in 2002, ended a string of double-faults in the first set before battling back with a mixture of deep ground strokes from the baseline and drop shots in the deciding set.
``If you want to win Wimbledon, you have to get to the net,'' Dementieva said. ``I want to improve on that. I love baseline tennis, but time and again I feel it's important to be closer to the net.''
Jelena Jankovic of Serbia retired during the first-set tiebreaker, allowing Michaella Krajicek to take the last semifinal berth. Krajicek was leading 2-1 in the tiebreaker when Jankovic quit because of a groin injury.
