Malisse In Chennai Finals

Written by: Staff on 9th January 2011

Malisse In Chennai Finals

Xavier Malisse (BEL) |

7th seeded Xavier Malisse (BEL) defeated his Serbian opponent Janko Tipsarevic, who finished in the Top 50 for the second straight year, by a score line of 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the singles semi-finals of the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open.

In the first set, Tipsarevic got 66% of his first serves in and held serve throughout the remaining of the set. He broke the Belgian player in the 2nd game to win the set 6-3. The 7th seeded Malisse put up a good fight in the second set, breaking his opponent’s serve in the 2nd, 3rd and 8th game, winning it 6-3. As the crowd cheered on for both the players equally, Malisse broke the Serbian in the 1st and 2nd game of the last set and pulled out 5 aces to win it 6-2.

At the post match press conference, Malisse said, “Tipsarevic was serving 2 aces per game. I thought I had nowhere to go from there. I think I started playing more aggressive in the second set. It’s tough to think that I’m into the finals, but I have trained hard. I have come determined to win. I work hard, and I am very happy to be in the final. It’s very gratifying to play on a court where I have won before. I have played Berdych a couple of times and I have played Wawrinka too. Let us see how it goes tomorrow.”

The 7th seeded Belgian, who is the only player in the history of the tournament to win both the singles and doubles title in the same year (2007), will now play the singles finals against the winner of the semi-final match between Top seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, and 3rd seeded Swiss player, Stanislas Wawrinka, who won the 2008 Doubles Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Topics: Tennis, Xavier Malisse