Third-seeded Sam Querrey cruised into the Indianapolis Championships final with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Canada’s Frank Dancevic on Saturday.
Querrey will face fellow American Robby Ginepri for the title. Ginepri beat John Isner 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday’s other semi-final.
“I’ve trained 150 times with each of those guys, but we’ve never played a [ATP] Tour match,” Querrey told reporters. “I’ve had three semi-finals here and now I’ve finally gone past that. I feel great, I’ve really improved my movement a lot from last season, that is key.”
PHOTO: AFP
The world No. 37 also made last week’s final at Newport, Rhode Island, losing to Rajeev Ram.
“Hopefully, I get a win this time,” said Querrey, whose only ATP title came at Las Vegas last year. “It’s been a good two or three weeks.”
Querrey led the second set 4-0 before being broken twice by Dancevic, who beat top seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in the quarter-finals.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ginepri saved all five break points he faced while breaking Isner twice.
“I had a lot of ups and downs in the past years,” Ginepri said. “I am still trying to find the form from 2005, but reaching the final here is very encouraging. I am still not as sharp as 2005, but I’m improving. I am serving really well and this is probably what got me to the final this week.”
Ginepri did not play on the ATP Tour from mid February to mid May after he was hospitalized for nine days in March with appendicitis. He lost 13.5kg during that time.
PHOTO: AFP
A two-time ATP winner, his last title came in 2005 when he defeated Andy Roddick in Indianapolis. He reached a career high ranking of No. 15 at the end of 2005.
■GERMAN OPEN
REUTERS, HAMBURG, GERMANY
Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Uruguayan qualifier Pablo Cuevas 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 at the German Open on Saturday to reach his first final of the season.
The world No. 39, who raced back from a set and a break down, will play Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who edged past Spaniard David Ferrer 7-5, 7-6.
The 23-year-old Cuevas initially pummeled Mathieu with his lethal topspin backhand, grabbing an early break to lead 4-2, before clinching the first set.
The world No. 107 got another break in the first game of the second set, but the 27-year-old Mathieu was in no mood to surrender, winning four consecutive games to level the match.
Heavy rain suspended play for some 40 minutes as the retractable roof started to leak, before 13th seed Mathieu raced to a 5-1 lead in the final set.
He survived a stirring comeback from surprise semi-finalist Cuevas, who leveled at 5-5, before breaking him again and serving out the match after almost three hours.
Ferrer, also looking for his first title of the season, broke the Russian world No. 12 twice to go up 5-3, before Davydenko battled back to earn a break. He then held serve to level at 5-5, before clinching the set.
Davydenko, who has missed much of this season with a heel injury, and world No. 23 Ferrer traded early breaks in the second, before the Spaniard again went a break up.
Ferrer, a losing finalist in Barcelona and Dubai this year, went 5-3 up, but Davydenko broke back and then leveled.
Two audacious cross-court drop-shots gave the Russian a 4-0 lead in the tie break, which he won on his first match point.
■GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN, AUSTRIA
Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania and Andrea Petkovic of Germany both reached their first career WTA Tour final on Saturday at the Nuernberger Gastein Ladies.
Olaru upset top-seeded Alize Cornet of France 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Petkovic routed Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-finals.
The 66th-ranked Olaru is 2-1 against Petkovic, who is the world No. 98.
Petkovic won their last match on hard court in Indian Wells in March, but Olaru’s victories both came on clay, the same surface used in Bad Gastein.
After conceding the opening set, Olaru fell a break behind in the second, before the match was interrupted for an hour because of rain.
Cornet double-faulted twice and did not a score a point while serving for the match at 5-4 and was broken again at 5-6.
An early break in the decider was enough for Olaru, who wrapped up the victory when Cornet hit a forehand return long.
The 21-year-old Petkovic has won eight titles on the lower ranked ITF circuit, but had never reached a WTA quarter-final coming to Bad Gastein.
“I know I am good enough to beat most players on this level,” said Petkovic, who is now 5-1 against No. 57 Shvedova. “I expected tough three-set match, but I didn’t give her much of a chance after a shaky start.”
Both players struggled early with unforced errors and double-faults on the rain-soaked clay courts.
After splitting the opening four games, Petkovic won nine in a row and converted her first match point when Shvedova netted a forehand.
■SLOVENIA OPEN
REUTERS, PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA
Russia’s world No. 1 Dinara Safina charged through to the Slovenia Open final on Saturday when she beat Italian Alberta Brianti 6-4, 6-3.
In the final, Safina will face fifth seed Sara Errani of Italy, last year’s winner, who beat Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-1, 6-2.
Safina, who has yet to lose a set at the tournament, raced to 4-1 up in the first set, before Brianti fought back to 5-4.
The Italian put up a struggle in the second set, but could not compete with the powerful Russian.
“I had a lot of chances to finish the match more easily,” Safina told Slovenia Sport TV.
“I think I slowed down at some important moments, but overall I’m happy that I could win,” she said.
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