Janko Tipsarevic ousts Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals – Thailand Open 2012
Highest ranked player of the tournament, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, grabbed his 50th match victory of the season by toppling the fifth seeded Spanish player, Fernando Verdasco, in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-4 at the last-eight
stage of the Thailand Open in Bangkok. The Serbian needed one hour and 50 minutes to win this contest.
Tipsarevic and Verdasco made a stable start, as they did not drop their serve in the first four games and levelled the proceedings at 2-2. The Spaniard nailed a breakthrough in the fifth and consolidated on it to go up 4-2. However,
Verdasco could not sustain his lead for long, as he lost the following two, which took the score to 4-4. There were no more strikes by either of the two players in the rest of the set, squaring off the proceedings at 6-6 and taking it to a tie-breaker. Verdasco
got into a solid position by winning first three points but then he dropped seven of the next nine points to close it 7-6(5).
Carrying the winning momentum into the second set, Tipsarevic struck in the very first game and won his subsequent serve to gain a 2-0 lead. Verdasco broke back in the sixth to come on equal terms. The Spaniard created five chances
to win Tipsarevic’s serve game in the eighth but could not capitalise on them. The Serbian made the most of this life line and grabbed three games in a row to capture it 6-4.
Talking to the reporters after the match, Tipsarevic acknowledged that he always faced tough competition from Verdasco. The Serbian stated, "It was a tough match but I was expecting it. I played Fernando five times before. It never
happened that any one of us won easily; it always had to be a battle. He was really going for the forehand; he made me suffer and run a lot today.”
Tipsarevic will lock horns with the fourth seed, Gilles Simon, for a place in the title match. Simon defeated his countryman, Gael Monfils, in straight sets in the quarter-finals.
Commenting on his next match up, the Serbian stated, "I met Gilles many times, I’ve lost more than I’ve won. It’s going to be a very tough match. Gilles is a previous champion here, he knows the surface, he keeps coming back every
year and I am here for the first time. I am really expecting a similar match to today: very, very tough."
Tipsarevic has faced Simon five times before this and trails 1-4 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
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