Eighth seed Vasek Pospisil reached his third tour-level quarter-final of the season on Thursday as he battled past Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.
The Canadian struck 11 aces and won one point more than Baghdatis as he claimed his 20th win of the season in two hours and 28 minutes. Baghdatis was bidding to reach the Kuala Lumpur final for the second time this week, having finished runner-up in 2011 (l. to Tipsarevic).
“I didn’t really have a strategy,” said Pospisil, who struggled with cramp towards the end of the match. “I was just trying to stand on the court, be able to play the points and try to win. When I saw the ball I just tried to hit it hard and keep the points short. I played well, but I was just trying to get through my service games somehow. I was fortunate for sure to have won that.”
The 25-year-old Pospisil, who reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Wimbledon earlier this year (l. to Murray), goes on to face second seed Feliciano Lopez.
The Spaniard survived a late fightback from qualifier Mischa Zverev to prevail 6-3, 7-6(4) in 90 minutes. Lopez was broken as he served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but regrouped to win the subsequent tie-break.
Lopez leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Pospisil 1-0, having beaten the Canadian in their one previous meeting at the 2011 US Open. The left-hander has a 28-21 match record on the season, and is playing his first tournament since reaching the US Open quarter-finals (l. to Djokovic).
Grigor Dimitrov rallied to defeat Joao Sousa 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes to advance to the quarter-finals. The No. 4 seed was down 2-4 in the final set before sweeping the next four games to set up a meeting with Benjamin Becker. With the win, Dimitrov improved his 2015 tour-level record to 28-17 and evened the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series at 1-1.
( Courtesy of the ATP and original link – http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/ferrer-dimitrov-lopez-pospisil-compete-in-kuala-lumpur )
Topics: Atp World Tour, Benjamin Becker, Feliciano Lopez, Joao Sousa, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Open, Marcos Baghdatis, Mischa Zverev, Sports, Tennis News, Vasek Pospisil
THE LATEST #TENNIS NEWS – @VasekPospisil EDGES OUT @marcosbaghdatis TO SET UP A @feliciano_lopez CLASH IN #MALAYSIA- http://t.co/sa75CtTcvn