We have a nice semi in the bottom half of the draw: Isner vs Gasquet.
The absence of 3 “big fours” (Federer, Nadal and Murray) helped the outsiders (but still seeded players) to set up an “unconvential” 1000 Master semifinal.
Both players had to play twice in the same day to get to the final four.
Isner
Big Johny came out from a difficult match with Kohlschreiber (6-7 6-4 6-4 in 2 hours) to defeat Raonic in straight sets in a boom boom match. Strange enough both players couldn’t use their services as usual to commit 5 doubles faults each. Milos blasted 13 aces, Big Johny “only 8” (peanuts if you consider that he blasted 22 aces in the previous match). Eventually the experience helped the American to win the match.
“I felt all right out there, and I thought I would feel fine,” Isner said. “The way I looked at it is I was at a bit of an advantage, in my opinion, because he hadn’t played in a few days. I played a match just earlier, a match I could have lost, 6-4 in the third set. Any time you win a match like that it sort of gives you confidence, so I went out there telling myself I had nothing to lose. But I was feeling pretty good. So although he may have been a little bit fresher, I guess I was a little bit more… in tune with the tournament.”
Gasquet
The Frenchman had to pull out the doubles to defeat Berdych (6-4 6-2 in 84 minutes) and Fish in 2h and 7 minutes (5-7 6-2 6-2).
“For sure it’s tough, but I think he played one more hour than me in the morning with Monaco so it made a little bit of a difference, I think,” said Gasquet. “I tried to fight a lot and then I defended well and I played a good match. But for sure to play two matches in a day, it’s very difficult.”
Head to Head
H2H is 1 all. Isner won the most recent on on the clay in the quarters ni Belgrad 2-6 7-6(6) 6-3. Gasquet won the other match on the hard in the second round in Basel in 2009 4-6 7-6(9) 6-2.
