World number one tennis player Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil will face American star Andre Agassi in a semifinal match of the Mercedes-Benz Cup of Los Angeles, after both posted wins Friday.
Top-seed Kuerten won his 15th straight match when he breezed past number-eight Tommy Haas of Germany (6-3, 6-3). Third-seeded Agassi ousted number-five Jan-Michael Gambill of the United States, also in straight sets (6-2, 7-5).
The other semifinal match Saturday will place number-four Pete Sampras of the United States against unseeded Xavier Malisse of Belgium.
Sampras struggled past number-seven Magnus Norman of Sweden (7-5, 7-6), while Malisse needed three sets to defeat American Taylor Dent (3-6, 7-5, 6-3).
In women's tennis news, Wimbledon champion Venus Williams has been upset by fellow American Meghann Shaughnessy in the quarterfinals of a ladies' tournament on the Stanford University campus in California.
Fifth-seeded Shaughnessy dropped the first set 2-6 Friday before coming back to defeat the top seed 7-5 in the second set, then winning a deciding tiebreaker 7-4. She will face Kim Clijsters of Belgium Saturday in a semifinal, after number-three seed Clijsters overwhelmed seventh-seeded American Chanda Rubin (6-3, 6-1).
Number-four Monica Seles downed unseeded fellow-American Lilia Osterloh (6-2, 7-5) in Seles' first tournament in nearly five months after taking time off with a foot injury. Seles will face second-seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States, who eased by German Jana Kandarr (6-3, 6-1).
The loss by Venus Williams vaulted American Jennifer Capriati past Williams into second place on the world ranking, the highest ever for Capriati.