Two Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals at the Swiss Indoors Basel. The once highly touted Donald Young, ranked 49, defeated the fourth seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa in straight sets: 6-2, 7-6. Anderson led 5-1 in their previous meetings, including a win in the Memphis semifinals earlier this year. Recently, the big South African earned the title in Winston-Salem and reached the quarterfinals at the US Open, Vienna and Shanghai. Young had an exciting US Open with three dramatic come from behind victories to reach the fourth round. Earlier in the year, he was a finalist at Delray Beach. Young was able to convert four of ten breakpoint chances, while Anderson had only two break opportunities. Although the American’s first serve percentage was only 49%, he still won 63% of his service points. Anderson only won 52% of his service points for the match (36% in the first set and 57% in the second). In the quarterfinals, the resurgent American will face his compatriot Jack Sock.
Jack Sock, ranked 29, used his superior all court game to best John Isner: 7-6, 6-3. Sock committed only five unforced errors along the way to just his second career victory over the big serving Isner who is ranked No. 14 in the world. Isner brought his typical power service game (14 aces, 73% first serves, 70% first serves won and 55% second serves won; all spot-on his lifetime average), but Sock countered with a strong return game, solid ground strokes and speed. “I was able to scrap out a lot of returns, get a lot of balls in play and win some points on hustle plays … Once the ball is in play, I feel my speed is one of my strengths.” Isner was looking to up his game after losing last week to 117 ranked Ernests Gulbis at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna in the round of 16. As usual the 6’10” American did not break Sock’s serve but looked to prevail in tiebreakers. However, in the first set tiebreaker Sock jumped on his one and only set point opportunity and drove a backhand volley past Isner at net. Sock kept his composure and momentum into the second set, played nearly error-free, and late in the set broke Isner for 5-3 before finishing out the match on his serve.
Marin Cilic of Croatia needed just 1hour 15 minutes to dismiss Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili: 6-3, 6-1. The 2014 US Open Champion and seventh seed reeled off 21 winners and seven aces in the match. The Croat won 68% of his service points as well as 51% of the return points. Gabashvili, ranked 51, faced eight breakpoints, saving four of them. The Russian was unable to capitalize on the three breakpoint opportunities on Cilic’s serve. Cilic will play Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. They have not faced each other since Rome 2011. Nadal holds a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head series.
Another big server, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, ripped 25 aces to get past qualifier Dusan Lajovic of Serbia: 7-6, 7-5. Not surprisingly, Karlovic won 93% of his first service points, compared to 76% for the Serb. Karlovic, ranked 23, has the all-time most career aces, recently passing Goran Ivanišević. The Croat has one title to his credit this year, Delray Beach, and was a finalist at Newport. In 2015, Lajovic’s best results have been the quarterfinals at Austria, Nice, Sao Paulo, and Quito. He is ranked 93 at present. Next up for Karlovic is Richard Gasquet, who leads the head-to-head series 4-1.
Gasquet has kept open the possibility of making it to the ATP World Tour Finals with a win over the talented young Austrian, Dominic Thiem: 7-6, 6-4. The Frenchman would need to win both this tournament and in Paris Masters 1000 next week to overtake David Ferrer or Kei Nishikori. This is particularly impressive considering that Gasquet withdrew from three Masters so far this year. In today’s match, Gasquet’s serve was on (70% first and second serves in) which coupled with ten fewer unforced errors than Thiem was all needed to take match. Both players entertained the crowd with terrific shot making, including a highlight reel forward “tweener” by Thiem.
