Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stayed on course for his third straight Open de Moselle title by beating Germany’s Tobias Kamke 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Friday to reach the semi-finals.
Tsonga has won 10 career titles, but only one this year at the Open 13 in Marseille in February. This is Tsonga’s first tournament since a knee injury forced him to drop out of his second-round match at Wimbledon.
The 80th-ranked Kamke has never won an ATP tournament and it was only his second quarter-final of the season. He saved eight break points in the first set and converted his first against Tsonga to move ahead.
Tsonga then broke Kamke once in the second and third sets and next faces eighth-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany, who rallied to beat Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to reach his second semi this season.
Yesterday’s other semi was to be an all-French match between Gilles Simon and Nicolas Mahut.
Simon beat sixth-seeded Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-6 (1) and Simon did not face a single break point in a Simon, who did not face a single break point, was next to play countryman Mahut after he beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-4. Simon took control of the tiebreaker by hitting a forehand passer down the line to open up a 3-1 lead.
He then forced an error at the net from Querrey, who swiped his racket in frustration after losing the next point. Simon opened his shoulders to hit a crisp forehand winner that set up five match points and he converted the first, when Querrey’s awkward shot sank into the net.
The 31-year-old Mahut is blossoming late in his career and won his first two singles titles this summer.
Simon, the 2010 champion, is chasing his first title of the season after reaching his fifth semi-final of the year.
ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AP, ST PETERSBURG, Russia
Sixth-seeded Ernests Gulbis advanced to the final of the St Petersburg Open yesterday by beating Michal Przysiezny of Poland 6-3, 6-3.
He will face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-1, 6-1 in the second semi-final.
The 36th-ranked Gulbis broke Przysiezny in the third game of the second set and again in the ninth game to seal the victory on his second match point.
The Latvian reached his second final of the season after winning his third career title in Delray Beach in February.
The 74th-ranked Garcia-Lopez won six consecutive games in the first set and broke his opponent twice in the second before sealing the win on his second match point. The Spaniard, who was runner-up in Bucharest and Rome in April, is looking for his third career title. He last won in 2010 in Bangkok.
Przysiezny and Sousa were playing in their first career ATP tour semi-finals.
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