Victorious Kafelnikov in hospital
Yevgeny Kafelnikov swept past Paradorn Srichaphan in the semi-finals of the President's Cup and immediately headed for hopsital in Tashkent with an injured finger.
The Russian third seed had been expected to struggle against in-form Srichaphan, but in the event wrapped up the win in 79 minutes.
But he injured the fourth finger on his left hand during the first set, and was only able to continue after a lengthy injury break.
Yevgeny has a lot of experience and he played a lot better than me today
Paradorn Srichaphan
"It is an expected fracture," said tournament doctor Yoni Yarom. "He (Kafelnikov) is on his way to hospital for x-rays."
Srichaphan said: "It was a long injury time-out and Yevgeny usually takes a lot of time between the points while I like to play right away, so the delays affected my concentration a bit.
"I try to play well every day, but I just couldn't do it today.
"Yevgeny has a lot of experience and he played a lot better than me today."
Provided he is fit, Kafelnikov will meet Vladimir Voltchkov on Saturday.
Voltchkov reached the first major final of his career with a 6-3 6-2 upset of eighth seed Davide Sanguinetti.
The Belarussian, who is only in the President's Cup tournament in Tashkent after coming through qualifying, is best known for reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals two years ago.
He broke the Italian twice in the first set and then twice more in the second to clinch the match in under an hour.
"I was expecting a much tougher match, especially from the psychological point of view, because I played him twice before and lost both those matches," said the 24-year-old.
Votchkov's ranking has slipped to 153 in the world, but he has already knocked out second seed Tommy Haas in the last eight.
"I haven't had particularly good results for the last year but this could not go any longer - sooner or later my luck was bound to change," he said.
Third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov plays fifth seed Paradorn Srichaphan in the second semi-final.
Now, whether he can play the final is a question-mark...
