TENNIS – Marcos Baghdatis will take on Denis Istomin for a place in the Aegon Nottingham Open final this Saturday. Sam Querrey (12) the last remaining seed in the draw will have to do battle Alexandr Dolgopolov if he wishes to have a chance at the title. Jonny Fraser and Mike James
Cypriot Baghdatis playing Simone Bolleli served with great consistency and control breaking the Italian twice to record a comfortable 6-4 6-4 victory. His semi-final opponent Denis Istomin beat the fourth seed Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 in a tight match lasting over 2 hours 15 minutes. With Istomin saving a match point in the final tie breaker he continues to upset the seeds having beaten Juan Monaco in round one.
The crowds continued to enjoy other high quality three set matches with big hitting American Sam Querrey defeating top seed and world number 13 Giles Simon 5-7, 7-6, 6-4. Querrey well known for his effective serve maximised the quick grass surface hitting 26 aces and winning a high number of points of his powerful first serve. Querrey acknowledged his slow start to the match “The first set was a little slow. I was serving well, which kept me in it. It wasn’t until the middle of the second set that I started feeling good and got my confidence”.
The last match of the day for the sell-out crowd to enjoy in the East Midlands included Alexandr Dolgopolov and Yen-Hsun Lu. Both players recorded excellent round of 16 wins the previous day beating Dominic Thiem and Fernando Lopez respectively. In another tight three set match the Ukrainian Dolgopolov came through in another final set tie break 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. Dolgopolov with a two to one head to head record against Querrey may well fancy his chances to reach his first ATP World Tour final of the year.
