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By Erik Gudris

David Ferrer Miami Sony Open(March 27th, 2013) -- It wasn't pretty tennis for sure, but David Ferrer was able to grind through a slow start to reach the semifinals of the Sony Open Tennis event for the third time in his career.

Taking on surprise quarterfinalist in Austria's Jurgen Melzer who was riding a nine match win streak, Ferrer broke serve to open the match and looked ready to take charge early on. But the Austrian responded by breaking back and soon was up 3-2. Melzer served for the set at 5-2, but Ferrer fought back to within a game.

Melzer once again served for the set at 5-4 and this time he was able to close it out when Ferrer netted on set point.

Ferrer started to get his trademark steely baseline game going in the second set. He broke Melzer for 4-2 and soon was serving for the set. Down set point at 3-5, Melzer challenged a close call on the baseline in front of him that he thought looked out. But the instant replay showed the ball in, giving Ferrer the set.

From there, Ferrer rolled through the final set and never allowed Melzer back into the match. The Spaniard who will be ranked No. 4 in the world next week only lost four points on his serve in the decider as well as only committing four unforced errors.

On match point, Melzer netted a final backhand to give Ferrer the 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win. Ferrer afterwards admitted to some early nerves in the match.

"Well, I start good with 2‑0 up, but he played very good and he played with great power with his shots.  And when he make the break to me, I played not so good, no? I was a little bit nervous in the first set and part of the second, but I tried to fight every point, to be focused, and I had a good feeling in the final of the second set and of course in the third one."

Haas Breezes Past Simon to Reach Semis

In a completely different effort later on in the night match, Tommy Haas continued his impressive run after upsetting top seed Novak Djokovic just 24 hours earlier.

Taking on France's Gilles Simon in the second quarterfinal, Haas early got involved in a cat and mouse styled contest with the wily Frenchman as they engaged in multiple extended rallies from the backcourt. But once Haas started using his all-court skills, especially up at net where he won nine points out of eleven approaches, things got much easier as he secured a late break of serve.

Haas closed out the first set 6-3 and kept his momentum going right through the start of the second set with a perfectly timed lob that gave him an early break.

From there, Haas started to muscle his way more often in the rallies leaving Simon little option other than try to out rally Haas. But when Haas claimed a second break for 3-0, it was clear it would be short evening for both.

Haas never looked back as he hit 20 winners in total to wrap up the convincing 6-3, 6-1 win in just over an hour. Miami now marks the first time that Haas has been to the semis of a Masters event played on outdoor hard courts since Toronto in 2002.
(Photo Credit: AP)

 

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