ready to head for the airport.

That he did not make the flight back home yesterday owed much to the grit and determination he has shown throughout his week in Bermuda.

After coming through the qualifiers, Russell overcame number two seed Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea in three sets.

That set up his clash with Fukarek, a player he beat in straight sets in the Calabasas Tournament in California earlier this year.

Revenge was obviously high on the Czech's agenda and he tore into his opponent to establish a 3-1 lead in the first set.

Though Russell retained his serve in the fifth he lost the next three games, the 6ft 3in European taking the set 6-2 with a hat-trick of aces.

Fukarek picked up were he left off in the second, breaking Russell in the first game and holding his serve in the second.

However, Russell began to dig deep and pick up the big points.

He took the second set 6-3 to level the match despite having to take a medical time-out when he slipped on the clay attempting to reach a deep Fukarek return and suffered a gash to his right leg.

The deciding set went this way and that and at 4-4 it was anybody's tie.

But it was Russell who took the next game when he broke his rival to leave himself just a few brief shots away from victory.

There was no way back for Fukarek when Russell passed him for 40-15 after an absorbing rally and just as in his match with Lee a day earlier when he ended with an ace, he finished off the Czech with a flourish -- connecting with a high return slam-dunk fashion to secure a place in the semi-finals (2-6, 6-3, 6-4).

"The first set and a half he was just playing too good,'' said Russell afterwards. "I couldn't do anything. Everything I did he came up with the answers. I was just going to go home, pack my bags and call it a good week.

"I was able to scrape through, get a break somehow in that second set, get it back on serve and then it was a new ball game.

"By some miracle I got another break and all of a sudden the match turned around.'' Argentina's Jose Acasuso booked himself a place in today's semi-finals against Peru's Luis Horna with a 7-6, 6-1 victory over Cecil Mamiit last night.

And afterwards the 18-year-old said he was confident he could win the tournament.

Acasuso started slowly and saved a set point before eventually winning the first set 7-1 in a tie-break.

American Mamiit, whose run had started with a demolition of Bermuda's James Collieson, was himself swept aside in the second set, as Acasuso found his range.

Speaking through an interpreter afterwards, Acasuso said: "I was not happy at all with the way I played in the first set. I won it only by luck. But I played better in the second.

"I have played in Bermuda once before and I am still getting used to the courts.

"I am still playing below my level, but I have a lot of confidence and believe I can win this tournament.'' Acasuso's ambition is to win the French Open and he proved once again last night that he has the ideal game for clay -- a full repertoire of groundstrokes, a mean disguised drop shot and a powerful serve to boot.

But it was Mamiit who was quickest out of the blocks, as he broke the Argentine's serve in the second game on his way to opening up a 5-2 lead.

Acasuso saved a set point with a tracer bullet of a forehand down the line. In the next game Mamiit denied himself another set point with some impressive sportsmanship when a line judge called Acasuso's shot long, but the American informed the umpire the ball was in.

The Argentine made the most of the reprieve by breaking Mamiit's serve and cruised through the tie-break to take the set.

Mamiit hit back to break Acasuso's serve in the first game of the second set, but from then on the youngster won six successive games to blaze his way into the last four.

Photos by Tamell Simons All business: American Mike Russell zeroes in on a big return on his way to an exciting 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ota Fukarek of the Czech Republic at the Bermuda Open yesterday.