Simon Slays Murray In Rotterdam, Berdych, Wawrinka Advance; Young Ousts Tomic In Memphis
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Andy Murray’s Rotterdam hopes came to a crashing end today as the top seed fell to Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Murray, who had shown such promise reaching the Australian Open final, had won 12 straight matches over the Frenchman.
“I struggled with most of the shots, to be honest,” said Murray. “At the beginning of the match my backhand, at the end of the match my forehand. It was tough. I felt I was hitting the ball too early. I felt my timing was a bit off.”
Simon, a former Top 10 player, avoided the dreaded 13th straight loss to a single player.
“It was a great match for me,” said Simon. “I lost 12 times against him, so it was almost an unexpected win. I had a better feeling against him the last two matches I had to play. I was twice one set and a break up, I really felt I was close to win, and I think it helped me to be more confident today.”
Simon will next meet Tomas Berdych in the semifinals. The Czech eased past Simon’s countryman Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-4.
“Tomas looked brilliant today,” said Simon who has won six of nine against Berdych. “He played a perfect match against Gael. I watched it all and it was really impressive. We know that Tomas is a really good player, and he’s an even better player indoor. He’s defending champion, so it’s going to be a tough match. I have a good record against him and I just hope I’m going to play a very nice match. If I play my best tennis I know I have a chance.”
During the loss, Monfils had a nice moment of sportsmanship in the second set after Berdych took this tumble:
In the other semi, Stan Warwinka will take on Milos Raonic. The Swiss ended the run of Gilles Muller while Raonic needed three to put away Sergiy Stakhovsky.
“This was my best match of the week, for sure,” said Wawrinka. “I was feeling great on the court. It’s never easy to play against Gilles. He’s serving big. It’s a lot of pressure. You know you’re not going to have a lot of chance to break him, but I’m really happy with my game. I was moving well, serving well, playing aggressive and it was really a good match.”
In Memphis, Donald Young advanced to the semifinals with a good 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 win over Bernard Tomic. The American will meet Kevin Anderson, a victor over Steve Johnson.
“I got a little nervous there at the end, but I was happy to come through,” said The Donald. “Anytime you make the weekend, you’re playing well. I made the weekend; it hasn’t happened too often in my career, so when it happens I’m very excited. Hopefully it can happen more, but this is happening for the first time this year, so I’m excited.”
Tonight, top seed Kei Nishikori takes on Austin Krajicek and John Isner meets countryman Sam Querrey.
The WTA stop in Antwerp has its semis set. After a week of upsets Karolina Pliskova faces Carla Suarez Navarro. Then it’s Barbora Zahlavova Strycova against Andrea Petkovic.
SATURDAY ROTTERDAM SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT start 2:00 pm
[8] G. Simon (FRA) vs [3] T. Berdych (CZE)
[3] J Rojer (NED) / H Tecau (ROU) vs [WC] A Begemann (GER) / R Haase (NED)
Not Before 7:30 pm
[4] S. Wawrinka (SUI) vs [2] M. Raonic (CAN)
[LL] J Murray (GBR) / J Peers (AUS) vs D Inglot (GBR) / F Mergea (ROU)
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