Bermuda Open.

Vince Spadea of the US faces Javier Frana of Argentina in today's first match while American Bryan Shelton battles Colombia's Mauricio Hadad tonight.

Spadea, ranked 60 coming into the tournament and on the ATP tour for just two years, played like a wily veteran defeating Karsten Braasch of Germany 6-2, 6-4 in an entertaining one hour, 17 minute match at Coral Beach and Tennis Club last night.

Wearing his good luck charm for his second straight match -- a Miami Dolphins' watch -- Spadea will face Frana for only the second time.

Both players have yet to drop a set this week and Spadea will be seeking to avenge his second round loss to Frana at last year's US Open.

Shelton, ranked 90, beat Australian Michael Tebbutt 7-6 (7-1), 1-6, 6-3 earlier in the day.

Hadad and Shelton will be facing each other for the first time. Of the four semi-finalists only Frana did not compete at the XL Classic.

It was a bad day for the Australians yesterday, swept from the Open when second seed Jason Stoltenberg, Tebbutt and Jamie Morgan lost their matches.

The Aussies suffered a monumental collapse and Morgan was first to go after Hadad recorded a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) triumph and things only got worse from there.

Hard-hitting Tebbutt couldn't keep up with Shelton, his game falling apart with a 2-0 lead in the third set.

Stoltenberg then lost to Frana 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 on a warm, sunny day at the Paget club.

The singles and doubles semi-finals take centre stage today with Prime Network of the US beaming the event live around the world, a first for a local sporting event. Bermuda residents can tune in tonight on Channel 35 at 8 p.m.

with tape-delayed coverage of the singles semi-finals.

While the Australians were being shut out of the Final Four, Shelton was the architect of a brilliant come-from-behind victory, and his trip to the semi-finals guarantees that he will surpass the million dollar mark in career earnings in Bermuda. He cashed in on a power surge in the late stages of the one hour, 50 minute match.

The 29-year-old settled down to rebuff Tebbutt's heavy artillery. The lanky Aussie, wearing his familiar headband, unleashed 12 aces in the match to put his overall total to 32 in three singles matches. But Shelton responded with 15 of his own and his experience shone against the two-year pro.

"I think that had everything to do with it,'' said Shelton near the players locker room yesterday. "(Tebbutt) came out unprepared, his racquets weren't ready and he broke his string in the third and all of a sudden he started missing balls.

"That's happened to me before,'' Shelton added. "It hurt me in the second set because with the heat today my strings started loosening up and all of a sudden I started spraying my serves. I went to a tighter racquet which I had in my bag and it made all the difference.'' The opening set proved to be a dogfight with Shelton ultimately having an easy time in the tie-break. But in the second set Tebbutt, ranked 102 on the tour, showed the same form that enabled him to oust top seed Todd Martin on Wednesday night, breaking Shelton's serve twice.

Trailing 0-2 in the final set Shelton suddenly became more aggressive, pushing Tebbutt into a corner.

"I fell apart,'' said Tebbutt. "It's really hard to look this week in a positive way right now. I've done this before, had a good win and then not backed it up.'' Shelton broke Tebbutt's serve twice in the decisive set compiling some impressive stats in the match. He won 40 of 56 first serve points and won all three of his break points while Tebbutt was only four of 11 in that category.

"(Tebbutt) was serving great, there was nothing I could do on his serve until he started missing some first serves,'' said Shelton. "He was serving great and keeping me off balance. I just had to wait until he started missing a few and then he missed a few and I got in there and I capitalised.

"You just got to hang in there,'' Shelton added. "That's what I did today. I started staying back on my serve and that made all the difference. All of a sudden instead of having to make little volleys I was having normal groundstrokes.'' Hadad, 7-1 on clay this year, proved to be a deceptive foe for Morgan. He moved the ball around well and seemed to wait for the Australian to make a mistake.

"I wanted to have a quick start,'' said Hadad, ranked 114. "That's what happened in the second set...I relaxed a little bit.

"(Morgan) is a big server and I had to return really well,'' said the 23-year-old as music hissed from the training room where the Colombian was getting treatment on his back.

"I'm having a bit of a back problem,'' he said. "It's just a little pain, but I'll be fine for tomorrow.'' Both players had exciting comeback victories earlier in the week and even though Hadad appeared to be in control there was always a possibility of Morgan suddenly rebounding.

"You fight to the end and it's not over until the fat lady sings I guess,'' said Morgan, who's had to wear other player's shorts since arriving here because he only brought coloured ones to Bermuda.

Frana, ranked 104 and a member of Argentina's Davis Cup and Pan Am Games squads, is on the tour comeback trail after taking six months off last year followingr a nasty bout with hepatitis.

"I've been playing better every day,'' said Frana. "I hit the ball hard and I made almost no mistakes. I think the first set was the key to the match. It was very intense, very long rallies. I think we both played a very high level at the beginning. It was tough. After the first set it's tough when the other guy is playing great.'' Braasch found the going tough against Spadea, one of the tour's and USTA's brightest young players and playing in only his 27th tournament. He was down a break in both sets and came back strongly.

"I just told myself to stick with it, to play the points as hard as I could and not worry about what was going on out there,'' said Spadea. "I knew it was going to be a tough match and it was going to be up and down. I told myself to keep positive.'' Spadea seemed to have little difficulty facing Braasch's unorthodox serve.

"I've seen him play and it's different to face his serve and his type of style when you're across the net,'' he said. "So it took me a little while to adjust to that. I just told myself to stay aggressive but in a controlled sense. I concentrated on watching the ball and not the other things he does.'' In doubles action Martin, coming off his tough loss to Tebbutt in the second round, found some solace with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) doubles win with partner Grant Connell over Gaston Etlis and Daniel Orsanic of Argetina.

"We didn't have quite as much rythym today as we did the other night,'' said Martin. "I think it was just a matter of circumstances ...I don't think either one of us were maybe as excited to go out on the court today. We got into a couple of situations where we needed to play well and we did. I do think we feed pretty well off of each other because what I do well sets up him and what he does well sets up me. Hopefully there'll be good things to come.'' ON THE MOVE -- Colombia's Mauricio Hadad (above left) ousted Australian Jamie Morgan 6-4, 7-6 yesterday to book his place in today's Bermuda Open semi-finals where he will meet American Bryan Shelton (above right) who needed three sets to beat another Aussie, Michael Tebbutt, 7-6, 1-6, 6-3.

Photos by Tony Cordeiro MICHAEL TEBBUTT -- bounced out top seed Todd Martin but then lost yesterday to Bryan Shelton.

Stadium Court (Starts at 2 p.m.) Singles semi-final Vince Spadea, US v Javier Frana, Argentina Doubles semi-final Javier Frana, Argentina/Patrick McEnroe, US v Brett Steven, New Zealand/Jason Stoltenberg, Australia (Starts at 7 p.m.) Singles semi-final Bryan Shelton, US v Mauricio Hadad, Colombia Doubles semi-final Alex Antonitsch, Austria/Martin Sinner, Germany v Todd Martin, US/Grant Connell, Canada