Friday 12 January 2018

de Minaur in another Semi Final

For the second ATP tournament in succession Australian teenager Alex de Minaur has made the semi finals.

In the Sydney International he has beaten Fernando Verdasco, seventh seed Damir Dzumhur and finally Feliciano Lopez 6-4 6-4 in the quarters to reach the final four.

And in the process he has yet to drop a set.

The future looks very bright for Alex, who came into this event ranked 167 but will find that improved at least twenty spots even if he fails to defeat his semi final opponent Benoit Paire.

Paire upset defending champion Gilles Muller in their quarter final 6-4 6-4

In a brilliant serving and returning exhibition, the Frenchman was able to break once in each set and Muller could not gather a single break point in the entire match.

de Minaur will have to lift his game to another level in order to reach the final but. Paire should do the same.

The second semi final will see qualifier Daniil Medvedev facing fourth seed Fabio Fognini.

Medvedev defeated Paolo Lorenzi in a quarter final, Lorenzi having previously knocked out top seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Fognini battled through two and three quarter hours to overcome fifth seed Adrian Mannarino.

The two were so evenly matched over the first two sets that the scoreboard reflected the situation - Mannarino took the first tie break 7-6(4) after each player broke twice from two chances.

The second tie break was Fognini’s 7-6(4) and he had broken once from seven chances, Mannarino once from six.

Fognini won 56 points to 55 in set two.

However set three was where Fognini said farewell to the Frenchman from the tournament, winning 75% of points on his first serve and 78% on his second serve.

The match score was 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 6-2 in the Italian’s favour.

The women’s semi finalists in Sydney:

Unseeded Dasha Gavrilova v Unseeded Ash Barty

All Aussie semi following Dasha’s good fortune with the withdrawal of Muguruza and the impressive win over Barbora Strycova by Barty in the quarters.

Unseeded Camila Giorgi v Unseeded Angie Kerber

Giorgi has defeated Grand Slam winners Sloane Stephens and Petra Kvitova before smashing previous Wimbledon finalist Aga Radwanska 6-1 6-2 in a quarter final where her serve was never broken.

Kerber has looked far more like the 2016 version where she was world number one and dual Grand Slam champion, than the 2017 one which saw her slip down the rankings into the twenties.

Her wins against Lucie Safarova and second seed Venus Williams went the distance but her performance in the quarter final against Dominika Cibulkova was dominant 6-3 6-1.

Especially so, considering Domi’s good form in the tournament thus far.

Semi Finals in Auckland:

Robin Haase v Roberto Bautista Agut (5) 

David Ferrer (7) v Juan Martin del Potro (2) 

Semi Finals in Hobart:

Lesia Tsurenko (5) v Mihaela Buzarnescu

Qualifier Heather Watson v Elise Mertens (2)

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