Tipsarevic battles past Verdasco
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No 1 seed faces Simon in today's semi-finals
Serbian top seed Janko Tipsarevic and former champion Gilles Simon of France will meet in a mouth-watering semi-final clash today at the US$608,500 Thailand Open following contrasting victories in yesterday’s quarter-finals.
Wearing his signature glasses, world No 9 Tipsarevic won a long baseline duel with Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, while 2009 champ Simon strolled past ailing compatriot Gael Monfils 6-4 6-1.
No 1 seed Tipsarevic appeared in trouble at 2-5 in the first-set tie-break but unleashed two aggressive ground-strokes to narrow the gap to 4-5. Verdasco seemed rattled by the show of force, and missed three forehands to surrender the first set.
Tipsarevic was then forced to dig deep to save several break points in a marathon eighth game. Crisis averted, he closed out the match comfortably thanks to a flurry of errors from the fifth seed to book his eighth semi-final this year.
“It was really tough but I expected it. I have played Fernando five or six times before. … Neither of us won those matches easily. It’s always been battles from the baseline. He really goes for big forehands. He made me suffer and I ran a lot today,’’ said the 28-year-old from Belgrade, who is one of only a few pros who sport spectacles on court.
“I don’t see very well, especially indoors, and it’s impossible to play without glasses,” explained Tipsarevic, who has a record of 1-4 against his next opponent, Simon, but won their last clash, this year in Madrid.
“ This is going to be a tough match,” said the Serbian. “He is the previous champion here. He knows the surface. He keeps coming back every year. I’m here for the first time.”
Fourth-seeded Simon needed just an hour and 24 minutes to reach back-to-back semi-finals here. His opponent, former world No 7 Monfils, was trailing 4-6 and 1-2 when he asked for on-court treatment for the right-knee injury that sidelined him for four months earlier this year. He barely tested Simon from then on.
“It’s always difficult to win against him. He always fights for everything, even though he is not in the best shape. I didn’t really play my game [but] I know how to play him, and I played the right thing to win,” said Simon, who has never been beaten before the semi-finals in his three visits here, going on to win the tournament in 2009.
But the Frenchman is currently recovering from a shoulder injury, which he claimed prevented him from serving as aggressively as he would have liked.
“My serve isn’t wonderful but it’s better. Today I put 180 [kph serves] every time. I just try to serve better day by day. It will take time, of course,” added Simo, searching for his second title of the season. Ranked world No 19, the 28-year-old next faces either third seed Milos Raonic of Canada or seventh seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
“It will be different from today. We will have to hit hard. It was useless to hit hard against Gael. That’s why I didn’t do it today. Tomorrow will be a regular game, but it depends on who is the next opponent. I just have to play my best tennis, which is the only thing I know. It’s like this every time I get onto the court,” said the winner of 10 ATP titles.
The other semi-final line-up was to be decided late last night in quarter-final clashes between France’s Richard Gasquet and Australia’s Bernard Tomic, and Milos Raonic of Canada versus Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
