Davydenko beats Bolelli 7-6 (10), 6-1 to move to semis at Croatia Open
By APSaturday, August 1, 2009
Davydenko, Ferrero reach semis at Croatia Open
UMAG, Croatia — Top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko saved five set points in the first set Friday before reaching the semifinals of the Croatia Open with a 7-6 (10), 6-1 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy.
Bolelli had two set points at 6-5 and three more in the tiebreaker. It was Davydenko’s eighth singles win in a row after taking the German Open title last weekend. The Russian missed nearly four months at the start of the year with injuries, but is 16-3 since the French Open.
Bolelli fell to 0-20 against top-10 players.
Davydenko will play fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who saved four match points to oust Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Ljubicic had one match point at 5-4 in the second and three more at 6-5 before Melzer rallied.
It will be Melzer’s first semifinal of the year, after losing in the quarterfinals in Kitzbuhel, Halle and Bastad.
Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina, 7-5, 6-2 to set up a semifinal against Andreas Seppi of Italy, who ousted Chile’s Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4.
