Top-seeded Lee Hyung-taik and Li Na advance to singles semifinals

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -Top-seeded Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea stayed on course for the men's singles tennis title at the Asian Games after defeating seventh-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan on Monday.

"I'm lucky to have finished this match in two sets, his serve was difficult to handle in the second set," Lee said after a 6-1, 7-5 win that set up up a semifinal against sixth-seeded Cecil Mamit of the Philippines.

Mamit, who is based on the United States, rallied to upset fourth-seeded Wang Yeu-tzuoo of Taiwan 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Cheered on by a large number of Filipino expatriates living in Doha, Mamit lifted his performance against the higher-ranked opponent.

"I never gave up and just kept going, the crowd helped me a lot," said Mamit, who had no concerns about going into the semifinal as the underdog.

"The semifinal's going to be tougher, but anything's possible in the medal rounds."

Fifth-seeded Go Soeda of Japan entered the semifinal with a shock 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory over second-seeded Lu Yen-hsun, whose game fell apart after the first set.

"Lu started making mistakes in the second set, by the second he was just tired," Soeda said. "It also helped that I didn't make many mistakes."

Soeda's semifinal opponent will be third-seeded Danai Udomchoke, who is leading the Thailand challenge after injuries forced 2002 Asian Games champion Paradorn Srichaphan to withdraw from singles.

Danai overcame some stiff resistance from South Korean Jun Woong-sun to win 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3.

"Jun's a hard topspin player, but that's not my style of game so I had to adjust a bit," Danai said. "I had to take the ball earlier than I usually do, otherwise I couldn't beat him."

Li Na, the top-seeded player in the women's draw, also dropped the first set before regaining her composure to beat eighth-seeded Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

Asia's top-ranked player on the WTA Tour, Li said she felt fatigued from playing too many matches during the Asian Games tournament. She was part of the Chinese team that lost in the semifinals in the team event.