Tsonga, Karlovic in semis; Murray dominates Simon
vienna — Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Friday to set up a semifinal against Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic at the Erste Bank Open.
It will be the third semifinal appearance of the season for the 15th-ranked Frenchman, who lost the previous two, in Auckland and Monte Carlo.
Sixth-seeded Tsonga, who won the event in 2011, failed to score a point while serving at 5-1 but broke again to close out the first set, and converted his third match point in the second-set tiebreaker.
Earlier, the 21st-ranked Karlovic used one of his 29 aces to save a match point before beating Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Andy Murray defeated France’s Gilles Simon for the 16th time late on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals and keep alive his bid to snatch Novak Djokovic’s world number one ranking.
The Olympic and Wimbledon Matches Del Potro has extended his winning streak champion eventually triumphed 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 after two hours and 40 minutes in a match which saw Murray commit an uncharacteristic 58 unforced errors.
In Basel, two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro and topseeded Stan Wawrinka advanced to the Swiss Indoors quarterfinals on Thursday. Del Potro beat fifthseeded David Goffin of Belgium 7-5, 6-3, while Wawrinka had 16 aces as he beat American player Donald Young 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 6-4.
Both players held their serve in the first set and dropped it once in the second. Wawrinka, the US Open champion, took the only chance he got on Young’s serve in the deciding set.
Del Potro, who won the Stockholm indoor title on Sunday, extended his winning streak to seven matches — six against players higher in the standings than the 42ndranked Argentine player.
Goffin, who beat Del Potro at the Shanghai Masters two weeks ago, struggled with his second serves and was broken once in each set.
Del Potro won back-to-back titles at Basel in 2012 and 2013. —
Results
> 2nd rd
Stan Wawrinka (SUI x1) bt Donald Young (USA) 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 Marin Cilic (CRO x4) bt Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 6-0, 7-6 (7/4) Marcel Granollers (ESP) bt Jack Sock (USA x8) 6-3, 6-1 Gilles Muller (LUX) bt Florian Mayer (GER) 6-3, 6-2 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) bt David Goffin (BEL x5) 7-5, 6-3 Mischa Zverev (GER) bt Guido Pella (ARG) 6-4, 6-2
Vienna Open > 2nd rd
Andy Murray (GBR x1) bt Gilles Simon (FRA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Viktor Troicki (SRB) Dominic Thiem (AUT x3) 6-2, 7-5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x6) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT) 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 David Ferrer (ESP x5) bt Joao Sousa (POR) 6-2, 7-6 (7/4)