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Posted at 7:30 a.m., Saturday, May 12, 2007

Gonzalez ends Volandri's run at Rome Masters tennis

Associated Press

ROME — Sixth-ranked Fernando Gonzalez ended Filippo Volandri's impressive run at the Rome Masters with a 6-1, 6-2 rout in the semifinals today.

Volandri upset top-ranked Roger Federer on Thursday and also knocked out No. 12 Tomas Berdych and No. 13 Richard Gasquet this week, but the Italian wild card was never in contention against Gonzalez, who reached the Australian Open final in January.

Gonzalez staved off a break point in the opening game of the match, broke in the following game and never looked back.

The Chilean picked on Volandri's backhand and took some speed off his first serve to make sure he got it in on the important points. Gonzalez also mixed in an occasional serve and volley and flattened out his ground strokes for winners to end several long rallies.

Gonzalez won 79 percent of the points when he got his first serve in and converted all four of his break points.

Later, Rafael Nadal puts his 75-match clay-court winning streak on the line against fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko in the other semifinal.

Nadal is attempting to break John McEnroe's streak for most victories on one surface. McEnroe had a 75-match winning streak on indoor-carpet between September 1983 and April 1985.

Nadal is also attempting to become the first player to win this French Open warmup three consecutive times. Thomas Muster and Jaroslav Drobny _ a Czech player in the 1950s _ also won in Rome three times, but not in succession.