Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to overcome a slow start for a second straight match before settling in to reach the semi-finals in his Austrian Open debut with a 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 defeat of Belgian Xavier Malisse on Friday.
After losing his opening set on Thursday, the patchy Frenchman did exactly the same against veteran Malisse a day later.
However, Tsonga regained his composure to win the second set in a tiebreaker, before closing out the victory a set later in two hours.
Photo: Reuters
“I hope to change these slow starts,” he said. “I came here after not playing for 10 days and I didn’t have a lot of confidence, but I’ve done the most important thing which is to fight and win.”
Tsonga is bidding for one of the three remaining places in the year-end ATP World Tour Finals in London from Nov. 20 until Nov. 27, standing provisional eighth and last in the field.
He will face off against German qualifier Daniel Brands, who beat Belgium’s Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-4.
“It is a match I’m hoping to win, even if I don’t know much about his game,” Tsonga said.
“Today it was tough against Malisse, he served well, but I kept focus even after the bad start. It’s good to be playing another semi-final again,” the Frenchman said.
Second seed Juan Martin del Potro powered into his sixth semi-final of the season, while two-time reigning champion Jurgen Melzer lost his first match since 2008 at his home event.
Del Potro defeated German Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-4, with third seeded Austrian Melzer going out against South African Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3.
The Austrian, whose last loss in the capital came in the 2008 quarter-finals to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, called the result in 63 minutes “disappointing.”
“I couldn’t get a rhythm and he has that huge serve,” he said.
Anderson will play only his fifth career semi-final when he takes on Del Potro after losing to the Argentine in February in Delray Beach, just two weeks after winning his first career title at home in Johannesburg.
The 32nd ranked Anderson, making his Austrian debut, fired 11 aces without facing a break point as he took the victory. Del Potro still has a chance of claiming a London place.
He stands provisional 12th in the race, with only two more weeks to go in the regular ATP season.
Del Potro, who defeated Haas in 80 minutes with 10 aces and three breaks of serve, will lead his nation against Spain in the Dec. 2 to Dec. 4 Davis Cup final in Seville.
ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AP, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Second seeded Janko Tipsarevic will take on seventh seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr in the semi-finals of the St Petersburg Open after both men maintained their good form in Russia on Friday.
The other semi-final will feature fourth seeded Marin Cilic against the 2004 winner Mikhail Youzhny, seeded fifth.
In the quarter-finals, Tipsarevic, who won his second title at the Kremlin Cup last Sunday, rallied to beat Potito Starace 6-7 (6/8), 6-2, 6-1, while Bogomolov, who reached the quarter-finals in Moscow, beat Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic 6-2, 6-1.
Later, Cilic advanced to his third semi-final this season after rallying to beat Andreas Seppi 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4, while Youzhny made it into his fourth semi-final with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Adrian Mannarino.
Youzhny won four consecutive games in the first set and was leading 5-2 in the second. Mannarino saved two match points on his serve before Youzhny served the match out.
Seppi, who won his first title in Eastbourne, England, in June, broke twice in the first set, but Cilic saved a match point on a second-set tiebreaker with an ace and converted a set point to stay in the match. The 22nd ranked Croat broke decisively in the ninth game of the third set and fired his 13th ace of the match to finish it in the next game.
Cilic has advanced to the finals three times from the nine quarter-finals he has reached this season, but is yet to win.
Starace won four straight points in the tiebreaker to take the first set, but the 13th ranked Tipsarevic reeled off four consecutive games in the second set and five more in the third to secure his eighth semi-final appearance this season.
Tipsarevic landed 12 aces in the match and is 7-2 in quarter-finals this season.
Bogomolov, still looking for his first ATP title, broke Lajovic twice in the first set and three times in the second for his second consecutive victory over the 228th ranked Serb.
The Russian-born American also beat Lajovic in the first round at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow last week. Lajovic was playing in his first ATP quarter-final.
It is the second time this year that Bogomolov has reached a semi-final.
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