Tipsarevic defeats Verdasco, plays Simon in Bangkok semis

Janko Tipsarevic and Gilles Simon to meet in Thailand Open 2012semis after straight sets victories over Verdasco and Monfils respectively.

Serbia’s number two Tipsarevic keeps confirming his top seed role at Thailand Open in Bangkok. On the other hand, fifth-seeded Fernando Verdasco had enough chances to find himself on the winning side, but his efficiency let him down in crucial moments. He was in a good position in the opener as he stole Tipsarevic’s serve in the fifth game, but 2012 Mercedes Cup winner Serb broke back to make it 4-4. Four love game followed with each of the players holding his service games comfortably. In the thirteenth game Verdasco was a mini-break up until 5-4 when he wasted two serves in a row. Tipsarevic accepted the gift gladly and converted his first set ball.

In the second set the Spaniard was broken in the opening game, but leveled the terms by 3-3. Had he taken an advantage of one of his six break balls in the eighth game he would have gone 5-3 up. Instead, Tipsarevic made use of his second break point opportunity of the set to snatch Verdasco’s serve again. He served out the match easily enough to take this one with 7-6 (5), 6-4. He now extended his head-to-head lead against Verdasco to 4-2.

In an all-French quarterfinal fourth seed Simon could afford losing a serve in the opening games of each the two sets, yet still remain largely untroubled by unseeded Gaël Monfils. Simon waited until the last game of the opening set to turn it around completely with his second break. He was even more determinate in the set two where he robbed Monfils of all of his service games and wrapped up the match after making a run of six straight games. In the end the scoreboard displayed 6-4, 6-1 in favor of this years’ Bucharest title holder. Simon will try to overcome Tipsarevic to play in Bangkok final.

Tags Fernando Verdasco Gael Monfils gilles simon Janko Tipsarevic Simon defeats Monfils Thailand Open 2012 Tipsarevic beats Verdasco