All eight seeds have advanced to the quarter finals which took place today at the Garanti Koza Sofia Open. The first two seeds Roberto Bautista Agust and Viktor Troicki qualified for the semifinals after beating Adrian Mannarino and Phillip Kohlschreiber respectively. The semifinals will be Bautista Agut vs Gilles Muller and Troicki vs Klizan.
Top seed Roberto Bautista Agut got through to the semifinals after beating Adrian Mannarino 6-4 6-3 in 69 minutes in the first quarter final without facing any break point chances. The Spanish player converted two of his five break point chances and won 77 percent of his first service points to clinch his 10th win of the season.
Both players went on serve until the 10th game when Mannarino went up 40-15 with a volley but dropped his serve after Bautista Agut hit a cross court forehand winner.
Mannarino faced a break point at the start of the second set but he managed to save it from 0-40 to hold his serve. Bautista Agut broke serve in the sixth game as Mannarino hit a backhand into the net. The Spanish player hit a forehand winner to seal the win three games later.
Bautista Agut received a bye through the first round and a walkover against Filip Krajinovic in the second round.
Bautista Agut has got off to a great start this year winning his first title of 2016 in Auckland and reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open.
“It is never easy to start a tournament in the quarter finals, especially when your opponent has played two matches. I am really happy about this start of the season. I have to think about the things that made me play good and win matches in order to keep on playing that way”, said Bautista Agut.
The Spaniard set up a semifinal match against Gilles Muller who overcame third seed Guillermo Garcia Lopez 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
Muller hit 14 aces and won 42 percent of his return points. He dropped his serve in the third game. He was broken again in the 7th game as he made a double fault. At 2-5 Muller broke serve before winning his service game to love for 4-5. Garcia Lopez served for the set in the 10th game but Muller broke again to claw his way back into the match to 5-5 after a double fault from Garcia Lopez. Muller earned three set points in the 12th game on return but he failed to convert them. In the tie-break Garcia Lopez earned two set points at 6-4. Muller saved the first with his return and the second with an ace earning his fourth set point. Muller clinched the first set with a backhand cross-court winner
Muller got the only break of the second set at 3-2 to seal the win,as Garcia Lopez sent his backhand volley wide. Muller dropped only five points on serve in the second set.
Bautista Agut leads 2-1 in his previous head-to-head matches against Muller but the player from Luxemburg won their last clash in four sets at this year’s Australian Open.
This year’s Sydney champion and second-seed Viktor Troicki reached the semifinals by beating Phillip Kohlschreiber 6-3 6-4. Troicki fended off all the four break points he faced and hit 15 aces.
In the semifinal Troicki will take on Martin Klizan who beat Andreas Seppi 6-4 6-3. Seppi could not convert four break points between the fifth and the seventh games of the first set and dropped his serve at 4-5. The Italian got an early break at the start of the second set but Klizan rallied from the break down by reeling off four consecutive games before closing out on his second match point.
Troicki leads 4-1 in his previous head-to-head matches against Klizan.
