Tipsarevic survives Nishikori scare

CHENNAI - Serbian Davis Cupper Janko Tipsarevic, the sixth seed, ended Kei Nishikori’s dream run in the Aircel ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here Friday by defeating the 21-year old rising Japanese star 6-4, 6-4, the scoreline belying the closeness of the contest.

In the semi-finals Saturday, Tipsarevic, ranked 49, finds himself up against seventh seed and 2007 champion Xavier Malisse from Belgium who earlier beat Germany’s Bjorn Phau 6-3, 6-3.

The other semi-final will be between top seed and World No.6 Tomas Berdych who disposed of Slovenian journeyman Blaz Kavcic 6-3, 6-3 and the winner of the last quarter-final tie between third seeded wild card entry Stanislas Warinka and No.8 Robin Haase that was stopped due to rains nearing midnight with scores tied 1-1 in the first set.

Tipsarevic was given a good working over by the 21-year old Nishikori, ranked 98, who in the first round had scalped defending champion and second seed Marin Cilic while displaying a lot of promise.

But on the day, Nishikori needed much more than just his enthusiastic retrieving ability against Tipsarevic who played the big points better while surviving a couple of breaks.

Looking ahead to the semi-finals, Tipsarevic said: “I’ve played against Xavier once before in Belgium and won in straight sets. But he has won here before so he is familiar with the conditions. I expect a very tough battle.

“My game is improving with each match but I’m not done yet - I’m hoping to go all the way. Winning these matches really helps for the confidence before the Australian Open.”

Berdych was surprisingly error-prone, but still had enough firepower to knock out unfancied Kavcic who has never beaten a player ranked higher than himself (112).

Reviewing the match, Berdych said: “In the beginning, I was a little surprised how he was playing because I had never played him before. So it was a little bit tough to know what to expect.

“Still, I started pretty solid, but then some mistakes crept into my game at the beginning of the second set. May be, I was forcing my shots a little too much, especially from the side playing with the wind. I needed to be a little bit more patient.”

There were as many as seven service breaks, six of them in the second set that swung from the mediocre to sublime as both players struggled to find their touch and rhythm.

For sure, Kavcic, winner of three Challenger titles last year and playing his first ATP tour quarter-final, did not entertain much hopes of beating the 2010 Wimbledon finalist, but showed plenty of courage to stay with his better-equipped rival.

“On the positive side, I’m happy I could break him back when he broke my serve and hold out to finish the match in straight sets.

“For my next match, I think I will need to maintain my concentration and keep the pressure on my opponent,” said Berdych.

On the outside court, Malisse wasted little time to chalk up his third straight win against Phau in 71 minutes to make it to the penultimate round.

The 30-year old Malisse has dropped just 12 games in seven sets to Phau who in the first round had knocked out fourth seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

Phau’s achievement in this tournament was par for the course as he has never got past the quarter-finals in six appearances.

Malisse said: “I played really well from the start of the match. We had a long game at 2-0 in the first set which I managed to win and after that it was tough for him to come back.”

The Belgian was also pleased that he played a near-flawless match and seemed to have taken to the conditions that are only familiar to him.

“I played a strong match. I didn’t make any mistakes and played a smart match. I like coming here to Chennai. It’s very relaxing, the matches start at 5 p.m., and so you can rest and recover well. The balls and the courts suit my game well,” he said.

The results:

Singles (quarter-finals): 7-Xavier Malisse (BEL) bt Bjorn Phau (GER) 6-0, 6-2; 1-Tomas Berdych (CZE) bt Blaz Kavcic (SLO) 6-3, 6-3; 6-Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) bt Kei Nishikori (JPN) 6-4, 6-4.

(Anand Philar can be contacted at anandphilar@gmail.com)