Benoit Paire produced a professional performance to beat Jerzy Janowicz 6-1 7-6(4) to reach the Semi-Finals in Stuttgart.
The first was a dominant one from the Frenchman as he went to work on the tall Pole. Both men held at the start of the match as the score was tied at 1-1 in the final Quarter-Final of the day. However after that it was all downhill from Janowicz as his forehand was wild to say the least on this low bouncing grass court. Despite conditions Jerzy should have done better in the first set. However Paire’s 82% of first serves won helped him to win the next five games and grab the opening set 6-1.
The second set was much better from both players as they serve comfortably, Janowicz used the body serve to good effect as he prevented breaks from happening. Although it didn’t help that the Frenchman was serving effectively and holding in less than a minute. If you saw the second set it would be hard to tell who was the grass court specialist and who wasn’t as Jerzy’s movement was laboured at the time. There were no breaks in the set as the second set went to a tiebreak. Each time Janowicz gained momentum the ball was dying on him and despite the minibreak early in the set there was nothing he could do. Paire served out the match to book his place in the last four in Germany in just over an hour.
It still has been a good week for Janowicz who has climbed up to 138 in the world rankings and notched up a win over Grigor Dimitrov and has an outside chance of entering Halle qualifying. However it is Benoit Paire who will meet Lucas Pouille for a place at the Mercedes Cup final.
