Atlanta: Top-seeded John Isner kept his bid for a third straight Atlanta title on track yesterday, rallying for a three-set semi-final victory over qualifier and friend Denis Kudla.
Isner unleashed 25 aces and converted three of nine break chances to defeat his fellow American 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
In today’s final he faces fifth-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, a 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) winner over seventh-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Kudla, ranked 94th in the world and still seeking a first ATP title, broke Isner for a 4-3 lead in the opening frame and went on to pocket the set in 36 minutes.
Stung, Isner raised his game, blasting nine aces and breaking Kudla twice.
“I got stronger and stronger as that match went on,” said Isner, who dropped just six points in as many service games in the third set.
“I was feeling not so great in the first set, winded.”
The 22-year-old Kudla, a friend and sometime practice partner of Isner, noted the difference, particularly in the power of Isner’s serve.
“He started flattening out his serve,” Kudla said.
“In the beginning, he was trying to pick his spots and I could get a racket on it. When he gets up toward 140 (miles per hour), that’s when it gets tough.”
Baghdatis, playing his third ATP semi-final of the year, broke through to reach his first final since Kuala Lumpur in 2011.
Today, the 30-year-old Cypriot will be seeking his first title since Sydney in 2010. Serving for the match at 6-5 in the third, Baghdatis was unable to seal the win.
But he opened the decisive tiebreaker by breaking Muller’s serve, and ended the two-hour, 36-minute match on his own serve on his first match point.
Meanwhile, Austria’s Dominic Thiem claimed his third career ATP title when downing top seed David Goffin 7-5, 6-2 in the Swiss Open final yesterday.
THe 21-year-old third seed added this to his wins in Nice in May and last week in Umag to become the first Austrian to get on the Gstaad roll of honour.
For Thiem there was a sense of revenge as last season Belgium’s Goffin had come out on top when they met in the final at Kitzbuehel.
On the way to the final he overcame second seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the semis and another Spaniard, seventh seed Pablo Carreno-Busta in the last eight.
Thiem went 3-1 up in the opening set only for Goffin to peg him back with two breaks of serve only for a double fault allowing Thiem to level at 5-5.
A third break saw Thiem take the set, and with momentum on his side he closed out comfortably to win in one hour and 26 minutes.
In Baku, Russian Margarita Gasparyan won her maiden WTA title yesterday beating Patricia Tig of Romania in three sets 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 to land the Baku Cup.
Gasparyan, 20 and ranked 112th in the world, looked to be in trouble when the year older Tig showed the kind of form she had on Saturday to topple top seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 100 places above her in 42nd, and levelled the match by taking an enthralling second set.
However, Gasparyan, who came through qualifying to make both the main draws of the French Open and Wimbledon this year losing in the first round to eventual champion Serena Williams at the latter, gathered herself together and whisked her way through the deciding set.
Agencies
