Houston, Apr 12 (EFE).- American Rhyne Williams became the first semifinalist at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, rallying from a break down in the third set to defeat Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 7-6 (7-1), 1-6, 6-4 on Friday. His rival in Saturday's semifinals will be another Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, who cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 victory Friday afternoon over Italy's Paolo Lorenzi. The 22-year-old Williams, ranked No. 144 in the world, came back from a 0-3 deficit in the third set to reach the semifinals of an ATP Tour-level event for the first time.

(Reuters) - Top seed Nicolas Almagro fought back to beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 2-6 6-0 6-3 in Thursday's second round at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston. Almagro grabbed the decisive break in the eighth game of the deciding set and the Spaniard will fancy his chances of securing a 13th clay-court title of his career in his first appearance at the Houston tournament. Fifth seed John Isner defeated 20-year-old fellow American wild card Jack Sock 7-5 6-7 7-6 in a match which featured just just one break of serve.

Second seed Tommy Haas crashed out of the US Clay Court Championships here Thursday, suffering a straight sets defeat to Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania. The German veteran -- who had inflicted a shock defeat on world number one Novak Djokovic at the Miami Masters last month -- was sent tumbling out 6-3 6-3 at the River Oaks Country Club. In other matches Thursday, Nicolas Almagro continued his dominance of Gael Monfils on clay by rallying past the former world number seven 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 in their second round tie.

Results on Thursday from the fourth day of the $455,775 ATP US Clay Court Championships (x denotes seeding): 2nd rd: Paolo Lorenzi (ITA x7) bt Flavio Cipolla (ITA) 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 Rhyne Williams (USA) bt Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/3) Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) bt Fernando Verdasco (ESP x6) 6-3, 6-2 John Isner (USA x5) bt Jack Sock (USA) 7-5, 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3) afp