The wind has been swirling around the WER Joell Tennis Stadium over the past few nights but when it finally died down the stage was set for some interesting semi-final match-ups in the Vitamin Water Open championships.

Newcomer Federico Waisman tried to put a spanner in the works when he pushed fourth seed Samitha Ranaweera to the limit in the men’s ‘A’ singles.

Ranaweera, however, managed to keep his cool, advancing to the semi-finals where he will face Andy Bray, the Island’s top player in tomorrow’s semi-final, with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

Though Ranaweera won in straight sets, it took him nearly two hours to do so, Waisman refusing to wilt under continued pressure.

Meanwhile, Michael Way defeated James Keyes in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, to set up a potentially mouth-watering semi-final against second seed Jacob Trott, although the latter must first get past another tournament ‘sleeper’ in Hamish McCallum.

While action in the singles moved into high gear, Leonie and Seamus MacLoughlin continued their trek towards the Mixed Doubles title and are now favoured to take that crown after making short work of the veteran pair of Barbara Lambert and Eldon Daniels, winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.

Lambert had earlier twisted her left knee which forced Daniels to try and take the pressure, but Seamus MacLoughlin, who normally heavily relies on his wife, took the leading role in this match, forcing Daniels and Lambert on the back foot time and time again.

He sprayed winners to every corner of the court, especially in the seventh game of the second set when he won the four points for game, set and match. First he raced into the add court for an easy overhead smash, rushed across court to volley down the line for the second point before slicing a delicate backhand cross court to go up 40-0 on Lambert’s serve.

And it was fitting that Seamus would seal the deal with a perfect lob over Daniels at the net.

Leonie admitted her husband “really played a fantastic game. Tonight was his night to do no wrong.”

The ladies’ top seed in the singles said their opponents committed a lot of errors “not by bad play but because Seamus kept pressure on them with his all-court play. He forced them into most of those errors.”

In ladies’ singles last night, second seed Zarah DeSilva continued her march towards the final with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Veronica Dunkley.