Defending champion Verdasco reaches semifinals

HOUSTON (AP) Defending champion Fernando Verdasco beat Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 6-3 on Friday night to reach the semifinals in the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.

The sixth-seeded Verdasco, from Spain, will face the winner of the late match between top-seeded countryman Feliciano Lopez and eighth-seeded Sam Querrey of the United States.

In the other quarterfinals, American Jack Sock beat fifth-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-4, 6-4, and third-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa topped seventh-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3).

The 22-year-old Sock is playing his third tournament of the year after having surgery to repair a torn muscle in his pelvis in December.