David Ferrer beat Fabio Fognini 6-4 6-2 after 74 minutes in the quarter final of the Erste Bank Open in the sold-out Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna boosting his chance to qualify for the ATP Finals. Ferrer and Fognini met for the ninth time in their careers. Ferrer won all their previous eight head-to-head matches. In their only prevevious match Ferrer beat Fognini 6-2 6-3 in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
Fognini got the first break of the match in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Fognini held his serve at deuce in the fourth game for 3-1. In the sixth game Fognini took a 30-15 lead but Ferrer earned a break point at 30-30 with a forehand passing shot and with three consecutive points he broke back to draw level to 3-3 after a series of unforced errors from Fognini. At 4-5 30-30 Fognini sent his forehand into the net. Ferrer hit a forehand winner to close out the first set with 6.4.
Ferrer, who won four titles this year in Doha, Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco and Kuala Lumpur, was in control of the match in the second set and raced out to 3-0 with a break to 30 in the second game. Fognini received a medical time-out to have his right foot examined. After losing five consecutive games Fognini held his serve in the fourth game by saving a break point. Ferrer held his service games until the end of the match. At 2-5 40-15 Fognini lost four consecutive points on his serve to drop his serve for the fourth time in the match in the final game. 6ognini hit 22 winners to 36 unforced errors.
In the semifinal Ferrer will take on Gael Monfils who fought back from a set down to overcome Lucas Rosol with 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-3. After losing the first set at the tie-break Monfils never faced a break point in the whole match. He fired 18 aces and won 82 percent of his first serve points. The Frenchman hit 40 winners to Rosol’s 32. Monfils, who lost his only final of the year against his compatriot Giles Simon in Marseille, is playing his first tournament since the US Open.
Ernests Gulbis edged past Ivo Karlovic in two tie-breaks 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) to reach the semifinals at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. Gulbis hit 12 aces to Karlovic’s 19 but won 72 percent of his first serve points and fended off the five break points he faced.
In the semifinal Gulbis will face US player Steve Johnson who fought back from a set down to edge South African Kevin Anderson with 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 reaching the fourth semifinal of his career. Thanks to this Johnson has moved to number 39 in the ATP Ranking, coming very close to his best ranking of number 37.
Despite the defeat Anderson hit 23 aces to become the third player to fire more than 1000 aces in the same season after Ivo Karlovic and John Isner.
