Pre-tournament favourites Gavin Manders, David Thomas and Sam Butler all advanced to the Open Men's Singles semi-finals of the Bermuda Corporate Games at WER Joell Stadium yesterday.Bermuda's number one player, Manders (Aspen) reached the last four with an emphatic win overt BF&M's Yannick Simmons (8-1) in his quarter-final match while Butler (KPMG) thumped Deloitte's Alex Whittaker (8-0) in the quarters.Thomas (Elbow Beach) breezed past Andrew Young (Catlin) 8-1 in his quarter-final match to also keep his Games glory hopes alive.Manders will face Aspen team-mate Kris Frick in today's semi-final while Butler will take on Thomas in the remaining semi- final.Frick advanced to the last four after getting past Nicholas Thuell (Hiscox) on a tiebreaker in the quarters.Former national team footballer Frick is now looking forward to mixing it up with Manders, who he extended an invitation to represent Aspen.“I've been working at Aspen Reinsurance so when we heard the Corporate Games were going to be held here I instantly started trying to get everyone excited about it and get a team of a dozen together,” he said. “I knew we would be playing tennis so naturally I extended Gavin Manders the invite so he's out here representing Aspen as well.“Now I have to play Gavin in the semi-final and I wish we were on separate sides of the draw. But it will be fun nonetheless.”Manders and Butler remained unbeaten in round-robin play to top their respective groups while Thomas finished runner-up in Group Two.Thomas gave Manders a big scare in the pair's opening Group Two round-robin match that the latter eventually won on a tiebreaker 7-7 (8-6).Manders trailed Thomas 0-4 in the Eight Game pro-set (first to win eight games) format before clawing his way back to draw even.The two rivals then their held serve to send the match to a seven-point tie breaker.Thomas appeared to be in the driver's seat with a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker. However, Manders again demonstrated why he is the Island's top player, winning the next five points to seal the match.“It was a tough match and we didn't expect to be playing each other right off the bat,” Manders said. “It took me a while to get used to his speed because I've had injuries and been off for about a month to rest to be able to play in this event.”Advancing to the Open Women's final yesterday were Jinky Irada (Deloitte) and Surlena Smith (Colonial) while Zina Hayward (KPMG) and Chris Elliott (XL) have reached the Women's 40-plus singles final.Yesterday's remaining men's action saw Wilfred Gonsalves (BF&M), Andrew Kennedy (Argus), Gladwin Phillips (Argus) and Gary Weller (Argus) all reach the Men's 50-plus Singles semi-finals.Gonsalves will face Argus team-mate Weller in the first semi-final while Kennedy and Phillips will do battle in the other semi.Games tennis continues today with singles and doubles matches on tap at the stadium.More Games stories and pictures, see Page 19.Games picture gallery: www.theroyalgazette.com