ATP Tour - Ferrer leads top seeds into semis

Eurosport - Fri, 11 Jul 20:46:00 2008

Spanish top seed and defending champion David Ferrer reached the Swedish Open semi-finals after beating Robin Soderling 7-5 6-7 6-1.

TENNIS 2008 Wimbledon David Ferrer / Foto: EFE - 0

Soderling, an indoor specialist, matched his opponent on the clay for the first two sets but looked energy-sapped in the decisive set of the two hours and 42 minutes match.

It was only the second win in six meetings with Soderling for the world number four, who takes on compatriot and 2006 winner Tommy Robredo after the third seed beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-2 7-6 in the last singles match of the day.

Robredo's rain-delayed win over the Finnish seventh seed ensured that the top four seeds in the claycourt tournament, three of whom are Spanish, took their places in the semi-finals.

Second seed Fernando Verdasco recovered earlier from a sluggish start to beat Swede Bjorn Rehnquist and set up a semi-final against Czech Tomas Berdych.

Verdasco, a career-high 13th in the world, played poorly in the opening set against qualifier Rehnquist before finding his rhythm to win 2-6 6-1 6-0.

At 1-1 in the second set the Spaniard, who reached the Nottingham final earlier this year, reeled off 11 games in a row to claim victory.

Fourth seed Berdych has a 3-2 edge over Verdasco in their previous meetings, but the Spaniard outclassed him in straight sets in the third round at Wimbledon.

Berdych, the world number 23, beat Italian Potito Starace 6-3 6-2. The Czech baseliner is hoping to go one step further than in 2005 when he lost the final here to Rafael Nadal.

Reuters

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  1. Well done Dhruv. Good prediction. Well done to Tomas for recovering from a first set drubbing as well as the heavy defeat at Wimbledon against the same player. Very good win for Berdych. CHEERS

    From rhymes450, on Sat 12 Jul 3:42PM

  2. The Ferrer- Robredo all-Spanish semi promises to be a cracker too. The clay-court hiatus between Wimbledon and the US hardcourt season doesn't seem to make sense but these semis will be very interesting as the players bid to accumulate precious points. CHEERS

    From rhymes450, on Sat 12 Jul 12:05AM

  3. I would make Verdasco favourite to beat Tomas on a clay court at sea-level. Just for the fun of it Dhruv!. As usuual, I'm really not sure. CHEERS (that was short!)

    From rhymes450, on Fri 11 Jul 8:52PM

  4. berdych will win

    From Dhruv, on Fri 11 Jul 8:21PM
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