Frenchmen Philippe Quemerais and Yann Le Pennec were second after the semifinals, but slipped to fifth after touching two gates for a combined four seconds in penalties.
The championship game will be held at a separate site that will be bid out like the Super Bowl and will be played at least a week after the semifinals.
He will play big-serving Kevin Anderson in the Sydney semifinals after the 36th-ranked South African beat Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-4 6-3.
The Shockers are also the kings of Kansas, reaching the national semifinals after the powerful Jayhawks and Kansas State both went down.
In the German Cup, VfL Wolfsburg and SC Freiburg progressed to the semifinals after victories over OFC Kickers 1901 and Mainz respectively.
Serena was encouraged to see her older sister reach the semifinals after her struggles the past 18 months in dealing with an autoimmune disease.
Clijsters will place Czech Lucie Safarova for a place in the semifinals after she beat sixth seed Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-3 6-1 earlier on Wednesday.
It's also worth remembering that it was in Miami last year that Nadal's left knee began acting up again (he withdrew from the event after reaching the semifinals).
There was no such trouble for Serena Williams in the women's event, as the world No. 1 reached the semifinals after seeing off a spirited Li Na of China.
Aragones' side were bidding to become the first group winners to progress to the semifinals after the upsets of the previous quarterfinals, but were unable to create much momentum in a first half stalemate.
When 13-year-old Nikitha Chandran and her parents pointed out that "viruscide" was an OK variant of "virucide, " it gave her an extra point that put her into the semifinals after she was initially told she didn't make the cut.
It capped a big week for Kvitova, who beat former world No. 1 and 2011 Dubai champion Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals after ending the title defense of fourth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska following a straight-sets win over Ana Ivanovic.
Meanwhile, Qiu had been the favorite going into the event after having won the semifinals by a significant margin.
Ferrer will now face seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in the semifinals, after the Frenchman saw off Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 6-3 6-4.
The World No.2, who won the tournament in 2005 and 2012, was hoping to bounce back after losing out at the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Ireland's John Joe Nevin and Great Britain's Luke Campbell will battle for the gold in the bantam 56-kilogram event Saturday night after winning through their respective semifinals.
Over in Sao Paulo, Rafael Nadal will face former World No. 3 David Nalbandian in the final of the Brazil Open after both men won their semifinals.
China's Jie Zheng, who was the first Asian player to reach at grand slam semifinal at Wimbledon in 2008, progressed to the semifinals in Birmingham after beating Italian fourth seed Roberta Vinci 6-3 5-7 6-4.
"I was just really determined today, and I'm happy I was able to win with that type of scoreline, " the Russian said after her passage to the semifinals where she will play former No.1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
Mexico also qualified for Saturday's semifinals in Kansas City after beating Honduras 3-0 and should qualify top of Group B by winning Tuesday's final game against Panama.
After last week's Champions League quarterfinals produced semifinals of Barcelona vs.
Middle Tennessee lost in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference tournament after winning the regular season title, which in previous years might have been enough to knock them out of the NCAAs.
He emphatically stated after his Orange were eliminated by Michigan in the national semifinals of the NCAA tournament that he would be back in the fall to coach Syracuse's first season in the ACC.
In the NCAA tournament, Carter-Williams scored a career-high 24 in an upset of top-seeded Indiana in the semifinals of the East Regional, just days after his family home had been ravaged by a fire.
One more win would put Iowa in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York after the Hawkeyes barely missed qualifying for the NCAA tournament, which they had hoped to make for the first time since 2006.
Ruwhedel had just completed his three-year college career after UMass Lowell was eliminated by Yale in the Frozen Four semifinals Thursday.
The 44-year-old took charge of Bayern last July, after leading an unfancied Germany side to the 2006 World Cup semifinals on home soil.
"I'm not going to answer that question unless you ask every coach that question, " Boeheim snapped at a reporter, minutes after a 61-56 loss to Michigan in the national semifinals Saturday night.
Smith scored 28 points in a bittersweet homecoming, carrying the fourth-ranked Cardinals into the Big East tournament semifinals with a 74-55 victory over Villanova only hours after the death of his esteemed high school coach.
Last year, the Orange finished 22-15 after a strong showing in the WNIT, losing to James Madison in the semifinals.
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