Rotterdam, Memphis: Former winner Tomas Berdych crushed defending champion Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-3 to set up a Rotterdam World Tennis semi-final with France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The fourth seed will play for a spot in the finals at the Ahoy stadium when he takes on Tsonga, who upset top seed Marin Cilic 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5) in two hours.
The Czech won the 2014 title in the Dutch port city, beating Cilic, while back in 2011 Tsonga lost to Swede Robin Soderling in the final.
Berdych also beat Tsonga in the first week of the year in Doha, but was badly mauled by Roger Federer at the Australian Open third round, which he cannot put out of mind.
“It’s hard to accept a third-round loss at a Grand Slam,” the 13th-ranked Berdych said. “That made my start of the season tougher.
“I’ve played well in Australia over the last few seasons and now I’m the guy chasing, I have to make it up at other tournaments, that’s what I’m missing this year.
Berdych lost just five points on serve as he overwhelmed Klizan.
“Tsonga is a great player, another tall guy trying to play aggressive,” said Berdych.
“But the most important thing will be my game plan and how I execute it. It doesn’t matter whom the opponent is.”
Berdych has now reached the semi-finals in Rotterdam for a fourth time after also finishing runner-up to Stan Wawrinka in 2015.
Tsonga characterised his winning effort over Cilic as “a good match”.
“I played some of my best tennis. If I keep playing like this I have possibilities to go further, I have my chances now to go to the final again.”
David Goffin gained revenge for his defeat in last weekend’s Sofia final to Grigor Dimitrov by beating the in-form Bulgarian 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert upset second seed Dominic Thiem 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) with the Frenchman having come through qualifying.
Herbert was competing in only his second career singles quarter-final.
American John Isner became the latest seed to be upset at the ATP Tour’s Memphis Open as the second seed lost in three sets to unheralded Donald Young.
The world No. 81 Young posted his first career win over Isner in four meetings by outlasting the fellow American 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) to reach the semi-finals.
Isner was the last remaining seed in the tournament as none of the top seeds reached the semis.
Young won a first-set tiebreak and dropped the second before holding on in the third set.
He let a triple match point opportunity slip away at 6-3 in the third-set tiebreaker, but after Isner won three straight points to tie it at 6-6, Young won two points to finish off the contest.
Qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin powered his way into the semi-finals with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over fourth-seeded Steve Johnson.
Kukushkin, ranked No. 103 in the world, is on a roll. He won three matches while losing only 14 games along the way. This is his first semi-final since 2015 in Sydney, Australia.
Many of the top players in the world decided to skip the Memphis tournament in order to play in events in Rotterdam, Netherlands and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Kukushkin’s semi-final opponent will be Nikoloz Basilashvili, who defeated qualifier Matthew Ebden of Australia 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
