Simon, Melzer march into Thailand Open semis

Second-seeded Gilles Simon of France rallied past big-hitting Evgeny Korolev of Russia on Friday to reach the Thailand Open semifinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Simon struggled to counter the 66th-ranked Korolev's big groundstrokes in the first set, having to chase down shot after shot before finally starting to force some errors. "He played amazing tennis in the first two sets," the 10th-ranked Simon said. "He rarely gave me any chance in the first set and hit the ball really hard.