Tipsarevic and Cilic continue winning streak in St Petersburg

Written by: Global Chick on 28th October 2011

Tipsarevic and Cilic continue winning streak in St Petersburg

Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia returns the ball to Michael Berrer of Germany during their second round match at the St. Petersburg Open ATP tennis tournament in St.Petersburg, Russia, 27 October 2011. Berrer retired from the match. EPA/ANATOLY MALTSEV |

World No. 13 Janko Tipsarevic moved into the quarterfinals of the St Petersburg Open on Thursday after leading 6-3 2-0 when opponent Michael Berrer of Germany pulled out after just one hour of play.

The Serbian’s form is smoking hot after winning both the Malaysian Open and the Kremlin Cup in the last couple of weeks. The in form second seed will meet with Italy’s Potito Starace who had a comfortable win over the number eight seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-2 6-4.

Israel’s number one player Dudi Sela was stopped by Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic yesterday. Lajovic is through to his first ever quarterfinals of a Tour event by winning 2-6 6-2 6-1. The Serb faces the number seven seed Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United Staes next. Bogomolov won in three sets over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 3-6 7-5.

Croat Marin Cilic has had a great 2011 reaching the finals of Marseille, Umag and Beijing. Cilic is looking to collect his sixth career title this week. On Wednesday in St Petersburg Cilic came back from a set down against India’s Somdev Devvarman in a match that lasted more than two hours. Cilic’s quarterfinal opponent will be Andreas Seppi of Italy who won over Russian Igor Andreev 3-6 6-2 6-4.

Four teams are through to the semis of St Petersburg Open’s doubles event. Top seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek overpowered Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Pere Riba 6-2 6-2. Cermak and Polasek are currently number eleven on the YTD rankings a have still got a chance to qualify for the doubles event in London at the end of the year.

German team Alexander Waske and Michael Kohlmann moved into the semi-finals yesterday with a win over Michal Mertinak and Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 6-2. They will meet Russian wildcards Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryavtsev who beat the number two seeds Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace of Italy in two tough sets.

SCHEDULE – FRIDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2011  CENTRE COURT start 1:00 pm

[7] A Bogomolov Jr. (USA) vs [Q] D Lajovic (SRB)

P Starace (ITA) vs [2] J Tipsarevic (SRB)

Not Before 5:00 PM

[4] M Cilic (CRO) vs A Seppi (ITA)

Not Before 7:00 PM

A Mannarino (FRA) vs [5] M Youzhny (RUS)

[1] F Cermak (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) vs [3] C Fleming (GBR) / R Hutchins (GBR)

Topics: Janko Tipsarevic, Marin Cilic, Michael Berrer