Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun was one win away from reaching his second ATP Tour final of the year on Thursday after the ninth seed defeated 14th seed Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-4 in the Winston-Salem Open quarter-finals.
World No. 38 Lu has yet to be broken in 29 service games this week. He advanced to his first final of the year in January at the Heineken Open in New Zealand, losing 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (9/7) to John Isner of the US.
The Taiwanese No. 1 served seven aces, saved a perfect five of five break-point chances and converted two of five to complete the victory over the Italian world No. 48 in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
Photo: AFP
“It feels pretty good, especially prior to the US Open,” Lu told the ATP Tour Web site about his victory on Thursday. “I am really happy the way I played today. The whole week I have not felt any pressure. I look to focus on each match. I played the big deuce points well. I don’t think too much of winning the title, as there is still a long way to go.”
Meanwhile, Isner’s preparations for the US Open hit a setback when a sprained ankle forced him to withdraw from the tournament hours before his quarter-final.
Isner, seeded 13th for next week’s tournament at Flushing Meadows in New York, was to have played Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic.
Photo: AFP
The world No. 15 is the highest-ranked American in the US Open. He is due to face Marcos Giron of the US in the first round.
“I can’t risk further injury with the US Open right around the corner,” Isner said at a press conference at the Wake Forest Tennis Center. “It was pretty uncomfortable doing even minimal stretching on it. I didn’t see the benefit of taking the court.”
Isner’s withdrawal sent No. 7 seed Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic into the semi-finals, where he was due to play Lu.
Yesterday’s other semi-final was between Sam Querrey of the US and Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz.
Querrey advanced by beating fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 6-4, while Janowicz defeated Belgian qualifier David Goffin 6-4, 6-2.
Isner, who won the Winston-Salem title in 2011 and 2012 and was seeded first, injured his left ankle on Wednesday night during his third-round victory over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
“It happened at 5-all,” Isner said. “I went over on it pretty good, but immediately after it happened I felt no pain on it at all. I was a little worried when I went to bed that night and it was pretty swollen this morning. There’s not much motion in the ankle right now, which led me to this decision.”
“It’s going to impact my preparations,” he said. “I probably won’t get on the court and hit some balls until Saturday, but I’m going to do everything I can to get it as fit as possible. I certainly expect to take the court in my first-round match and at this point I expect to play well up there as well.”
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