Nalbandian edges Coria

Nalbandian, a replacement for American Andy Roddick, recorded his first victory of the championships 7-5 6-4 in 75 minutes.

While Coria held a 3-1 advantage over Nalbandian in their previous meetings, the 2002 Wimbledon finalist had won their Australian Open fourth round meeting at the start of the year.

Coria made his move in the third game of the first set breaking Nalbandian to 30 before confirming a 3-1 lead.

Nalbandian found himself under further pressure in the fifth game, but managed to recover from 0-40 to gain hope of a comeback that the 23-year-old gained one game later breaking Coria to 30 for 3-3.

As both players saw their unforced error count increase, so did the opportunities to break. It was Coria who snapped the Nalbandian serve on a fourth point to lead 5-4 that looked decisive, but his countryman responded immediately with Coria hitting a forehand long of the baseline at 0-40.

At five games-all the first set looked to be on course for a tie-break, but Nalbandian was able to win the opener in 62 minutes with Coria serving at 30-40.

Seven breaks of serve highlighted a sub-standard second set that drew gasps of despair from the sparse crowd in the 15,000-seater arena.

Nalbandian, who reached the quarter-finals or better of three major championships in 2005, broke back for 4-4 as Coria hit one of his 14 double faults in the match.

Minutes later, 23-year-old Coria found himself triple match point down the world number six a spent force. Nalbandian thumped a forehand winner - one of 27 - down the line to close out.

Coria, who lost to Ivan Ljubicic in his first round robin match, will play two times defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland on Thursday. Nalbandian meets Ljubicic for the final semi-final berth.