Juan Martin del Potro’s bid to win his second title at the ASB Classic is gathering momentum following his 7-6(4), 6-3, win over Karen Khachanov in the quarter-finals.
The second seed was once again dominant on his serve as he faced no break points through the match. Similarly Khachanov, who is also known for his big serving, remain resilient through the opening set by matching del potro game-by-game. Despite the closeness between the two, it was del Potro’s experience that prevailed as he clinched the tiebreaker before going up a break immediately at the start of the second set. Aiding him to the straight sets win.
“I played very good points in the important moments of the match, basically in the tiebreak,” Del Potro said.
“That was the key of the match; I took all my chances and I played solid with my service game.”
A former champion back in 2009, the Argentine produced 11 aces and won 72% of his service points to move into the last four of the tournament. He is yet to face a break point this week in Auckland.
Del Potro will next take on four-time champion David Ferrer, who dismissed South Korea’s Hyeon Chung 6-3, 6-2, in just under 80 minutes. The world No.38 didn’t have it all his own way during the encounter as he dropped serve once in each set. Nevertheless, Ferrer managed to take advantage of his Chung’s inconsistent serving. Chung won less than 50% of both his first and second service points.
Despite the one-sided win, Ferrer praised the 21-year-old after the match. Chung won his first tour title in November at the inaugural ATP Next Gen Finals in Milan.
“I tried to play consistent and aggressive because with Chung, he plays with power, and it’s never easy,” Ferrer said during his court-side interview after the match. “He has a really great future.”
The upcoming semi-final clash will be the 11th meeting between the two players. Currently Ferrer leads their head-to-head 6-4, but has lost their two most recent encounters. Looking ahead to the match, Del Potro believes that Ferrer’s recent fall in the Emirates rankings will have no impact on their clash.
“We’ve played many times and we alway have good battles,” he said. “Nobody cares about David’s ranking because he’s a great champion of this sport and everybody enjoys watching his game. It doesn’t matter about my ranking, his ranking, it’s going to be interesting to watch and I hope to play a good match.”
In the other section of the draw, Roberto Bautista Agut overcame Jiri Vesely 7-6(1), 6-2, in his quarter-final match. The Spaniard, who is bidding to win his first ATP title since August, will next take on Robin Haase.
