Tennis: This time last year the animated Dutch player Martin Verkerk was in Italy winning a Challenger event while the world was watching the French Open unfold at Roland Garros.

Verkerk lost his match in the last round of the qualifying event to a French player he remembers as Prodon and immediately packed his bags.

What has changed since then that has brought him to the verge of a Grand Slam final, he is not so sure about, but with his huge serve and risk-taking mentality, Verkerk is one player Argentinian Guillermo Coria will fear going into their semi-final today. For both players this stage of a Grand Slam is a new departure.

It will be a classic duel between the tallest player in the draw against the smallest, who just happened to knock Andre Agassi out of the competition and afterwards drew considerable praise from the Australian Open champion.

Agassi's positive appraisal of the young Coria was that he moves beautifully and has a wide range of shots as well as the nerve and poise to carry them through under pressure.

"Of course I know how to play Coria," said Verkerk. "Same actually as against Moya because for me I came in a lot. I played serve volley. One year ago I couldn't volley. Now I make volleys to go into the semi-finals. That's where I am most happy about the progress I've made tennis-wise."

But no one is more surprised at Verkerk than himself for getting so far although a run into Paris of a quarter-final in Rome, semi-final at St Polten suggests his form is not coming from nowhere.

On the other side of the draw defending champion Albert Costa will find out if the price he paid in court time to get to the semi-final was too costly or not. At 18 hours and 31 minutes compared to his opponent Juan Carlos Ferrero's court time of 11 hours eight minutes, Costa has played the equivalent of two five-set matches more than the number three seed.

While he has already defied those who said his legs would buckle before now, this time he's facing the most precise player in the competition. Ferrero can carve opponents by placement and movement.

This fair-haired Spaniard has played only one five-set match, his quarter-final against Fernando Gonzalez on Wednesday. He will try to move Costa around the clay while Costa will try to keep the points short, as he did in the latter half of his quarter-final against Tommy Robredo.

The winner is likely to be the player who can place himself in a position to dictate just how quickly the points are decided.