Sam Querrey overcomes Ivan Dodig in the quarters – AEGON Championships 2012
World number 77, Sam Querrey of USA, advanced to his first semi-final on the ATP World Tour since 2010, as he downed the 69th ranked Ivan Dodig, in three sets 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals at the AEGON Championships
in London on Friday.
Querrey and Dodig held their serves in the opening 10 games, levelling the scores at 5-5. The American hit a blow to his opponent in the 11th and served it out at 6-5.
The 24-year-old gave mixed performance on the serve, as he committed a couple of double faults and lost six of the 10 points on the second deliveries. The right-hander did a good job on the first ones, maintaining a percentage
of 71 and winning 21 of the 25 points on them.
Querrey and Dodig did not allow each other to break serve in the first seven games of the second set, taking the score to 4-3 in favour of the latter. The Croatian struck in the eighth and held the next one to triumph 6-3.
Dodig pounded five aces and did not commit any double fault in the second set, hitting 79 percent of the first serves. The 6ft tall converted 16 of the 23 first and five of the six second deliveries into points. The Zagreb, Croatia
resident did not face even a single break point and converted the only one he received.
In the third set, Dodig and Querrey held their serve in the opening five games to take the score to 3-2 in favour of the American. Querrey claimed a breakthrough in the sixth and consolidated on it to attain a 5-2 lead. The Las
Vegas, USA resident made the most of that advantage and sealed it 6-3.
Querrey needed one hour and 32 minutes to get past his opponent in a close match.
Dodig was in good form, as he had reached the last-eight stage after toppling two seeded opponents in the previous rounds. The Croatian had stunned Japan’s Go Soeda, seeded 15th at the event, in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(3)
in the second round. He grabbed the biggest win of his career in the next match, stunning the world number five, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, in three sets 7-6(3), 3-6, 7-6(5) in the last 16.
Querrey will now take on another Croatian, Marin Cilic, in the semi-finals. Cilic was leading 6-4, 2-0 when his opponent, Yen-Hsun Lu retired in the quarters.
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