Izak Van Der Merwe, Grega Zemlja advance to the semi-finals – Levine, Gouldin & Thompson 2011 CH
Izak Van Der Merwe beats Ruben Bemelmans 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-3
Top seed Izak Van Der Merwe of South Africa survived the drubbing in the second set to rally past sixth seed Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium in three sets 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals at the Levine, Gouldin & Thompson in Binghamton,
New York on Friday. The South African took one hour and 59 minutes to win the match.
Van Der Merwe and Bemelmans exchanged one break of serve in the first set to take the score to 6-6, forcing a tie-break. The South African bagged a late mini-break to win the tie-break 8-6.
Bemelmans came back in style after losing the first set and thrashed his opponent in the second set. The Belgian was almost flawless as he allowed Van Der Merwe to claim only one game in the entire set, breaking the South African
twice to seal the set 6-1.
Van Der Merwe and the Belgian held their serve in the first six games, equalising the score at 3-3. The South African captured three games in a row after that, breaking Bemelmans in the eighth game and sealing the set 6-3.
The six feet and five inches tall will play eighth seed Wayne Odesnik in the semi-finals.
Grega Zemlja defeats Greg Jones 6-2, 6-0
Slovakian Grega Zemlja, seeded fourth at the event, thrashed unseeded Greg Jones of Australia in straight sets to reach the last four. The Slovakian dropped just two games, knocking out his opponent 6-2, 6-0 in just an hour and
fourteen minutes.
Zemlja broke the Australian in the third game of the opening set and won his next service game to blaze forward to a 3-1 lead. The Slovakian broke Jones again in the fifth game and consolidated on the double break of serve to race
to a 5-1 lead. Zemlja served out the set at 5-2.
The Slovakian crushed Jones as he was flawless in the second set. Zemlja grabbed six straight games as he did not allow the Australian to win even a single game, breaking him three times to claim a bagel set 6-0.
The 24-year-old fired two aces and captured sixteen of the eighteen first service points in the match. The Slovakian saved the four break points he faced and capitalised on five of the eleven break point opportunities he created
in the second set.
Zemlja will face world number 16 Paul Capdeville of Chile in the semi-finals.
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