Zopp zaps favourite in stunning comeback win

The world No 73 took the opening set in just 19 minute after a barrage of unforced errors from his 146th-ranked opponent. But Zopp then began to unleash explosive serves and booming ground-strokes to overwhelm the tournament’s hot favourite.

“I thought it was going to be over so quickly as he was playing unbelievably, while I was making so many mistakes in the first set. Then I started to focus more on my serves, which was the key to keep me in the match. I was a bit lucky in both tiebreaks. I was so close to losing this match. I’m happy to go through,” said the 27-year-old Zopp, in his fourth ATP Challenger semifinal after Bergamo, Bordeaux and Ningbo.

The Estonian next faces either Japan’s Yuichi Sukita or eighth seed Yoshihito Nishioka, who were due on court last night at press time.

“I’m happy to beat the top seed, but this is my last tournament of the season. I was ready to go on holiday, but I guess I have to give myself another chance here,” said the Estonian big-gun, who won the match in one hour, 58 minutes.

In another match yesterday, Japanese fifth seed Ito Tatsuma took one hour and 27 minutes to beat qualifier Stephane Robert of France 76 (86) 61 for his fourth ATP Challenger semifinal berth of the season after Hong Kong, Tokyo and Kaohsiung.

“It was a tough match out there but I tried to focus on my game. I tried to attack from the baseline but sometimes it didn’t work. My first-serve percentage was not so good but I kept on fighting. In the second set I felt much better and broke him three times,” said Tatsuma, who has reached two ATP 250 quarterfinals so far this year, in Bogota and New Port. He also took French Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka to three sets in an ATP 500 event in Tokyo.