Almagro to face Ferrer, Tipsy in maiden clay final
Almagro to face Ferrer, Tipsy in maiden clay final
The top
two seeds, David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, will contest the ATP Bastad
final after comfortable semi-final victories in Sweden, while Janko
Tipsarevic progressed to his first career clay court final in Stuttgart.
World number five Ferrer's Indian summer continued with a 6-3 7-5 win over Grigor Dimitrov, putting the 30-year-old Spaniard into his sixth ATP Tour final of the year.
The 2007 champion completed his 50th win of the season in just over
an hour and a half, after taking defending an early break in the first
set before saving two set points in the second.Last year’s runner up, Ferrer followed that with a break and a hold against the Bulgarian sixth seed, setting up a final clash against compatriot Almagro after he beat Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-3.
"I didn't serve well today," said Ferrer. "I saved good points and I was a bit lucky in the (second) set. I'm very happy to be in the final here in Bastad.
"I have played (Almagro) many times before and I know I will have to run a lot on the court."
Almagro, the 2010 champion, put eight aces past Hajek as he qualified for his fourth final of the season.
The 26-year-old, who lost to Ferrer in the 2007 final, has won titles in Sao Paulo and Nice this year.
In Stuttgart, Serbian star Tipsarevic beat Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-4 2-6 6-4 in two hours and three minutes.
The world number eight moves into his first final of the season, where he will face second seed Juan Monaco.
The Argentine needed two hours and 41 minutes to beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3 3-6 7-5, his fourth consecutive defeat of the Spaniard.
Garcia-Lopez had battled back from 5-1 down to level in the deciding set, but was broken late to lose.
At the ATP Umag event in Croatia, top seed Fernando Verdasco lost to fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-2 6-7(5) 6-1 in the first semi.
The match lasted almost three hours and means that world number 24 Granollers enters his first final of the season.
Fourth-seeded Granollers will face second-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia in Sunday's final after he beat Ukrainian third seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
