Chennai: Apart from getting to know the conditions here, Stanislas Wawrinka also seems to have sharpened his cricketing skills over his six straight appearances at the Chennai Open tennis tournament. Sending a few signed balls into the stands using a willow is a ritual for a match winner here and the 2011 edition champion was at ease firing the souvenirs into the crowd after reaching the semifinals on Friday.
The 6-2, 6-1 result against Slovenian Aljaz Bedene, however, wasn’t as comprehensive as the scoreline might suggest. The Swiss world no.8 struggled with his serves, made four doublefaults, committed a foot-fault and was broken twice. Both the players struggled with their serves and the match witnessed a barrage of breaks — as many as nine in 15 games.
Wawrinka stepped on the court with an impressive record of 300 singles win on the Tour, but what he had on the mind was revenge. Bedene had beaten Wawrinka at the same stage of the competition here last year.
“I was playing against him on one of the outside courts last year and I was not as confident as I am now. I made a few doublefaults today but I am happy that didn’t make any impact on the outcome,” said the 28-year-old Wawrinka who became just the fourth Swiss player to reach the landmark of 300 wins after Roger Federer (923), Marc Rosset (433) and Jakob Hlasek (432).
Wawrinka will meet Canadian Vasek Pospisil, fifth seed, in the semifinal. The big serving Pospisil fired five aces en route to his crushing victory over India’s wild card Yuki Bhambri.
Much was expected from Yuki after his brilliant run into the last eight stage, but the 19-year-old found it hard to hit winners against the nimble-footed Pospisil (world no. 33) who covered the flanks with ease. Pospisil was so dominant in his service games that he won 77 per cent (37/48) of them. On the other hand, Yuki shot himself in the foot with his misfiring serve. Two doublefaults in the ninth game of the second set ended Yuki’s maiden Tour quarterfinal appearance on a disappointing note.
“I made a mistake of not putting enough pressure on his serve and I also gave him easy breaks,” said Yuki.
Earlier on Thursday night, top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi were packed off by a scratch pair of India’s Saketh Myneni and Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
In the other semifinal to be held on Saturday, Spaniard Marcel Granollers will take on Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Granollers turned the table on fourth seed Benoit Paire 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) in a gripping match on an outside court, while Edouard Roger-Vasselin edged Dudi Sela 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-0.
Results (QF): Vasek Pospisil (Can) bt Yuki Bhambri (Ind) 6-3, 6-3; Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) bt Dudi Sela (Isr) 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-0; Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Aljaz Bedene (Slo) 6-2, 6-1. Marcel Granollers (Spa) bt Benoit Paire (Fra) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5). Doubles: SF: Johan Brunstrom (Swe)/Frederik Nielsen (Den) bt Karen Khachanov (Rus)/Saketh Myneni(Ind) 6-4, 6-3. QF: Marin Draganja/Mate Pavic (Cro) bt N. Sriram Balaji/Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 6-3, 6-3.
City’s Saketh, mate beat No.1 Bopanna and Qureshi
City’s Saketh, mate beat No.1 Bopanna and Qureshi
Chennai: Apart from getting familiarised with the conditions here, Stanislas Wawrinka seems to have sharpened his cricketing skills over his six straight appearances at the Chennai Open tennis tournament.
Sending a few signed balls into the stands using a willow is a ritual for a match winner here and the 2011 edition champion was at ease firing the souvenirs into the crowd after reaching the semi-finals on Friday.
The 6-2, 6-1 result against Slovenian Aljaz Bedene, however, wasn’t as comprehensive as the scoreline might suggest. But Wawrinka got his 300th singles win on the Tour.
Wawrinka will meet fifth seeded Canadian Vasek Pospisil, who fired five aces en route to a 6-3, 6-3 win over India’s wildcard entrant Yuki Bhambri.
Earlier on Thursday night, top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi were packed off by a scratch pair of India’s Saketh Myneni and Russia’s Karen Khachanov. Saketh and Karen won 7-5, 2-6, 12-10.
The Hyderabad based Saketh and his partner fought hard as they did not let their fancied opponents dominate and struck blows at crucial times to script a memorable win.
