South Africa’s top tennis player, Kevin Anderson, on Wednesday won his opening match at the Auckland Classic event in New Zealand.
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No. 5 seed Benoit Paire was upset by Lukas Rosol 6-4, 7-6(5), who will next face Ferrer.
Spaniard David Ferrer and France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Auckland Classic’s top two seeds, have made it through to the last four with straight-sets victories.
“In the middle of the warm up I had a light bulb moment”, said Sock.
Ferrer, a four-time Auckland champ, cruised past Lukas Rosol, 6-3, 6-4, in 71 minutes to book his semifinal slot. Gears, he flipped; it was a new Jack Sock – in fact, it was actually the old Jack Sock – the one I’m more used to seeing: firing himself up after big points and pumping out first serves.
He plays his first-round match at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.
The pair have met once before, with Ferrer winning in Stockholm in 2013. But the 26th-ranked Sock broke the eighth-ranked Ferrer’s serve in the second game of the second set and held serve for 3-0, and was never threatened the rest of the way.
With the Czech serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Ferrer pounced with a series of groundstroke winners to bring up three match points.
“I’m definitely going to have to be the aggressor and be the one dictating the points”, he said.
“You do a lot of mistakes because of that, but it’s good and I’m really happy to go through”.
“I was probably wrong to be honest, so players always do that, perhaps I need to do a better job tomorrow to not get so rattled by the calls”.
“I had revenge today”, said the Spaniard, who is ranked 25th, 14 places below Isner.
Around 1 am EST, he’ll square off against World No. 25 Roberto Bautista-Agut in the semifinal, who he managed to beat twice past year.
It’s an unusual gesture – given the amount of perspiration socks will absorb across a match – but may become part of the American’s brand.
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Bautista Agut is to play Tsonga in the semi-finals after the Frenchman’s 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) win over Fabio Fognini.
