Melzer on fire as he enters Semis; will play against Seppi
Excitement is at its peak as the German Open Tennis Championship continues at the Rothenbaum Tennis Center, Hamburg. Jurgen Melzer and Andreas Seppi dominated play for the quarter finals on the clay courts and both of them are through to the Semi Final round of the event.
The 3rd seeded Austrian was in full form on the day of the quarter final. Melzer was determined to enter the semi finals and played his best shots to crush his opponent Potito Starace of Italy. Melzer was especially confident about his game after featuring for the first time in a Grand Slam semi final at Roland Garros. Number 1 ranked Rafael Nadal forced his exit from the semi final earlier in June. He was also partners with Philipp Petzschner at the Wimbledon earlier this summer. They beat Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 6-1, 7-5, 7-5 in the finals to clinch the title.
Melzer started off the match confidently. As he entered the arena, he was cheered on by spectators. In the first set Melzer defeated Starace 6-4. He hit 5 aces against the Italian and won 18 service points out of 26. Melzer also won 2 break points against his opponent. It was a straight set victory for the Austrian in which he was leading with 43 total points against 34 total points from Starace.
Melzer was practically ruling the court in the second set. It seemed as if Starace lost his confidence after the first set loss as he couldn’t hit a single ace. He also couldn’t win a single break point. He was able to win only 2 return points and ended up only winning a single game in the whole set. Melzer reduced his opponent to ashes with 3 aces to clinch an impressive straight set win of 6-1. This was the first time Melzer and Starace were meeting. The Italian will surely remember their first encounter lasting one hour and eight minutes. For Melzer, this is the 15th time he is winning on the clay court this season. After this match, Melzer has secured a berth in the German Open semi finals. He will be playing Andreas Seppi.
Andreas Seppi did a wonderful job too. He beat the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci to ensure his place in the semi finals. Bellucci, however, gave Seppi a tougher time. In the starting set, Bellucci hit 1 ace and won 19 service points against Seppi. The Brazilian was playing very confidently. Seppi knew this was a hard nut to crack. Despite impressive numbers, Bellucci gave in to the consistency showed by Seppi and the set entered a tie. To everyone’s surprise Bellucci couldn’t score a single point in the tie breaker. Thus the first set was clinched by Seppi 7-6(0).
In the second set, Bellucci didn’t let his opponent get too comfortable on the court and kept him running. Hitting 5 aces and winning 26 service points, he made sure to clinche the set. Seppi couldn’t hit a single ace or win a single break point. Thus Bellucci won the second set 7-5. The 7th seeded Thomaz Bellucci knew that it was a do or die situation for him. But luck was with the World No. 70 Andreas Seppi. Rather than concentrating on aces, Seppi tried to convert serve points and was greatly successful. He won 29 out of 44 serve points. Scoring a total of 43 points, Seppi captured the set 7-5 ending the marathon game that spanned over three hours and eleven minutes.
Seppi will now face Melzer in the semi finals. In their career records, Seppi leads Melzer 2-1. This match was Seppi’s sixth appearance after which his match record is 17-18. Bellucci, on the other side has dropped to 29-15 match record this season. Seppi and Melzer semi final will be an important event of the German Open.
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