Kevin Kim is a man living on the edge.

Yesterday?s incredible quarter-final victory over Franco Squillari featuring wasted match points, a vital overturned call and a third-set tiebreak during an epic 150 minute encounter, was just the latest instalment in an amazing week for the qualifier.

The American, who has now played five matches in the past six days, finds himself in the semi-finals of the XL Bermuda Open ? and admits he ?has been getting the breaks?.

It took him three sets to overcome an angry Robert Kendrick in the previous round but yesterday?s lunch-time victory over the Argentine former world number 11 contained most of the components of a classic.

It might not have been a classic in terms of quality, with both players only very occasionally breaking away from the pattern of baseline battles, but it was certainly a classic in terms of tension, excitement and controversy.

Squillari was dominant in a 6-2 first set victory, with Kim tossing away the final game from a 40-0 lead.

But Kim, as he has already proved, is not a man to be written off and he proved that in the second when he also broke twice to take the set 6-3.

It was the final set, for which many of the watching crowd in the corporate boxes seemed to have extended their lunchbreaks, when the game really came alive ? in the eighth game to be precise.

Squillari saved break point at 30-40 when 4-3 down with an immense forehand down the line and tied things up at 4-4.

In his next service game, when 5-4 down, the 28-year-old faced a match point against him but survived when Kim netted.

Having just surrendered a chance to move into the final four, Kim then collapsed to a service break himself.

But Squillari, serving for the set, found himself 15-40 down very quickly. He did fight back to deuce, then wasted a match point of his own, before thinking he had earned another at deuce with a winner.

But, as the mark left by the ball on a clay court allows, Argentine umpire Damien Steiner overturned that call much to Squillari?s disappointment and disbelief. Kim won the game and then triumphed 7-4 in the tiebreak.

?I was feeling the tiredness in my legs,? said an exhausted-looking Kim afterwards.

?But things are going my way at the moment. In that final game I barely had the energy to make it to the net but I got that call overturned ? something that can never happen on grass or a hard court ? and I got through.

?I have been a little lucky at times but I have played some good games and I am feeling pretty good.?

He admitted that the two extra qualifying games he played at the weekend may leave him short of gas over the weekend, but ?that?s tennis, that is the way it goes?.

Given the nature of his defeat, it was perhaps no surprise that Squillari?s response to a press question asked after five minutes calming-down time in the locker room was a dismissive ?not yet?. He then retired to the sanctuary of the players? lounge still cursing Spanish expletives under his breath.

Whereas the game?s opening day was a battle of two out-and-out powerful baseliners, the following match was a much more intriguing, tactical affair.

It was number one seed Luis Horna against former number ten in the world Davide Sanguinetti ? the diminutive powerhouse versus the laid-back master tactician.

Every shot hit by Horna, who uncoils his entire bodyweight through every attack on the ball, was met with a relaxed and elegant stroke by the 31-year-old Italian.

Horna?s powerful, attacking game, embellished with the occasional massaged drop shot, was too much for former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Sanguinetti, who couldn?t quite keep up with the powerful Peruvian in the 6-4 first set.

But in the second, Sanguinetti took command and his reliable strokes, and occasional bunts, began to frustrate an impetuous Horna, who took many of his frustrations out on his racquet ? the code violation he received was more than justified given the tangled mess that was left in his hand after the tantrum.

A short break with the trainer gave him extra time to think about how his game was falling apart but even putting a hat on his shaved head couldn?t stop him going down 6-1.

Horna said afterwards that the trainer was called because he was having a dizzy spell and admitted that he ?gave away the second set? to prepare for a final set showdown.

But Horna, a player who is clearly adept at recovering from his bouts of self-analysis, exorcised his demons in the final set with a clinical display of power-hitting.

The combination of speed, depth and spin on the ball became too much Sanguinetti, who despite gamely stretching his lanky frame from one side of Coral Beach centre court to another, was unable to keep up with the aggressive youngster.

?I felt dizzy and unwell,? said Horna afterwards.

?I gave him the second set and in the third I didn?t feel much better so I just concentrated on my service games and then tanked (gave away) his serves apart from where there were chances.

?There was one chance and I took it.?

Sanguinetti was a little less forthcoming.

?We both played the game and he played better,? he said with a shrug of the shoulders before striding away.

This victory propelled Horna into a semi-final match-up with either Stephane Robert or Juan Monaco and a place in tomorrow?s final looks inevitable unless his next falling out with himself is too severe ? or he runs out of racquets.