Germany's Markus Wieser maintained an unbeaten record in this year's match racing Gold Cup when he sank the highly fancied Chris Law by a 3-0 margin in yesterday's quarter-finals in Hamilton Harbour.

Wieser, who will face Britain's Andy Green in the semi-finals, put his success down to the relaxed state of mind of his crew but Law, unseeded this year though still ranked 12 in the world, blamed fatigue for a poor start in the first race and was irritated that he had not tied things up in the second.

"I had a case of my mind being in neutral first thing this morning and we threw away the first race,'' he said.

"We weren't in it at all, hadn't really even woken up.

"In the second race we were leading into the first mark but then got tangled up in two other pairs and that sort of got us out of phase. Then Markus got around us and away from us. That was silly: it was 2-0 when it should have been 1-1.

"In the third race, at the start there was literally no wind and the boat just stopped. Markus was to weather of us with what wind there was and made us look very ordinary.

"From then on it was catch-up and the guys did a really good job. We got back at him at the top mark but couldn't wriggle round him.

Wieser, as he had done earlier this week, felt his success was down more to psychological rather than technical or tactical factors.

"If you have a really good team and have fun on the boat, you can just go out and go sailing. If you have fun on the boat, you win.'' That sense of fun was not lost on Law. "Hats off to him and his team,'' he added sportingly. "I don't think they've lost a race, I don't think they've been penalised.

"They're sailing really well, they're relaxed and that's what it's all about.

We bow out, hopefully with a grin on our faces.'' Fifth seed Green, meanwhile, came through against Sweden's Bjorn Hansen by three flights to one to get a shot at the top seed.

"We had some pretty close races,'' said Green, sailing in his final regatta before rejoining Team Aloha for the America's Cup in New Zealand. "We have been improving all week, our boat speed has been getting better and better.

"We got a pre-start penalty for entering early in one race which is not a very clever thing to do, but we kept grinding away at Bjorn and the boys were awesome.

"It's the first time we've sailed each other and I'm sure there will be some good races to come in the future.'' The unseeded Andrew Horton, of America, slipped out, beaten by a 3-1 margin by Jes Gram-Hansen of Denmark in some of the closest matches of the tournament.

And in the battle of the Swedes, Magnus Holmberg defeated Marten Hedlund 3-1 to ensure an all Scandinavian semi-final.