POERTSCHACH, Austria — Defending champion Juan Monaco and third-seeded Ivan Ljubicic advanced to the semifinals of the Hypo Group International today.

Monaco defeated Robby Ginepri of the United States 7-5, 7-6 (3), and Ljubicic fought off five match points before edging Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (6).

Ljubicic will play Monaco in Friday's semifinal match.

Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko defeated John Isner of the United States 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the second round. Davydenko will play sixth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy, who stopped Dudi Sela of Israel 7-5, 6-1.

Ljubicic was in control of the match until he dropped serve against Gimeno-Traver on the first break point at the end of the second set.

"All was going well for me, so I lost my concentration a bit," Ljubicic said. "I cannot afford doing that, I have to be sharp to play well on clay."

In the third set, the 109th-ranked Gimeno-Traver had four match points at 6-5 and one more in the tiebreaker, but Ljubicic won on his first match point when the Spaniard netted a backhand.

Monaco dropped serve three times but won four Ginepri service games to clinch the opening set. Monaco converted his first match point in the tiebreaker.

Earlier Thursday, Monaco defeated Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 and Ginepri rallied to defeat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in second-round matches. Rain delayed play earlier in the week.

After quickly winning the opening set, Davydenko got into trouble in the second when Isner hit 13 of his 21 aces.

"There was nothing I could do about that, his serve got so strong," the fourth-ranked Russian said. "The rallies were short so it was difficult for me to find my regular game from the baseline."

One break in the decider was enough for Davydenko to win.

Jurgen Melzer of Austria defeated eighth-seeded Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Melzer will play Igor Kunitsyn of Russia, who defeated qualifier Blaz Kavcic 6-1, 6-4.