With Agassi and Sampras out of the draw, both of today's players in the semifinals did not get much notice throughout the tournament. Costa was able to take advantage of Sampras's withdrawal with a tough win over his countryman, Alex Corretja, yesterday. Meanwhile, Henman sneaked through the draw with straight set victories and posted the easiest quarterfinal win of yesterday over Nicolas Lapentti. This was a mild "upset" as Henman was the 5^th seed and Lapentti was the 4^th. Henman and Costa had only one previous meeting prior to today, with Henman winning their 1998 third round match at Toronto.

Costa, perhaps still fatigued from yesterday's match, started off slowly today. A 123 mph ace closed out Henman's first service game after Costa committed a series of unforced errors to get the Brit to game point. Costa's first service game reached deuce and a netcord winner gave Henman an early 2-0 lead. In Costa's next service game Henman had two more break chances but was unable to convert on either of them. Costa held for 3-1 as a Henman service return floated wide. Henman approached the net a lot more than in any of his previous matches. Often he did not even have to hit a volley as Costa sent potential passing shots into the net or way long. The players held their serves over the next several games, but Henman was dictating most of the points. Henman held the one break advantage to take the first set 6-3 in 41 minutes.

Similar to yesterday's all-Spaniard matches, Costa appeared to calm down a bit in the second set and stay in rallies longer. Henman dominated on his service games. In the fourth game of the match, Henman had two aces (116 mph and 129mph) and closed out the game with a 123 mph service winner to hold for 2-2. Henman continued to be aggressive and earned his first break chance in the seventh game of the second set. He utilized an effective chip-and-charge strategy and broke for 4-3 with an overhead smash. He held at love in his next service game, once again eliciting a weak reply from Costa and responding with an overhead winner. In the ninth game, Costa went down on his serve 0-40 giving the Brit three match points. Costa erased two of them with a 108 mph service winner and a backhand volley error from Henman. On the third break point opportunity, Henman approached the net and Costa's forehand pass attempt sailed long. Henman won the match 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour and 9 minutes.

Henman's winning ways continued in the fan participation game following the match. Lately, Mercedes-Benz has sponsored a competition where fans compete with a victorious player and race radio-controlled vehicles around the court. Henman had a little tougher time with this contest than the match just completed but crossed the finish line with his vehicle much to the delight of the crowd.

In the post match news conference, Henman felt that he has improved with each match played here in Scottsdale this week. He feels that he can improve on his serve, which according to the official statistics was at a measly 42% first serve percentage. Despite this statistic, he only lost 9 points on his serve and did not face a break point during the match. He faces the winner of tonight's semifinal match between Lleyton Hewitt and Juan Carlos Ferrero. Hardly considering himself a "veteran," Henman said it was unique that either one of his opponents will be six years his junior. He stated that Hewitt was probably the favorite in tonight's match and hoped that it would be a "long and grueling" meeting.