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By Erik Gudris / Friday, September 27, 2013

 

Portugal's Joao Sousa stunned top seed David Ferrer to earn the biggest win of his career in Kuala Lumpur. Stanislas Wawrinka rallied in three sets to reach the semis.

Photo Credit: AP

Portugal's Joao Sousa is proving to be a name to watch as he scored the biggest win of his career at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.

Taking on top seed David Ferrer in the quarterfinals, Sousa came out firing and claimed the opening set with ease 6-2.

Ferrer battled in the second set, but that didn't prevent Sousa from serving for the match up 5-4. Ferrer broke back though and eventually forced a tiebreak. Though Sousa fell behind in the breaker, he kept his composure while Ferrer grew more frustrated with the power and pose from his opponent.

On his second match point, the 24-year-old Sousa forced a final backhand error from Ferrer to seal the unexpected 6-2, 7-6(6) victory and his first win over a top five player.

"David is a good player," Sousa said. "He probably didn't play his best today, but tennis is like this. Sometimes you have great days, sometimes you don't. I think I played a great match and I'm really happy to be in the semifinals here."

Sousa will next face Jurgen Melzer in the semis. Melzer earlier defeated Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-2.

Wawrinka Overcomes Tursunov in Three Sets

No. 2 seed Stanislas Wawrinka overcame a sluggish start against No. 6 seed Dimity Tursunov to book his spot in Saturday's semis. Wawrinka could not get anything going as his shots often landed in the net or well wide. Those errors helped Tursunov pocket the first set 6-2.

But Wawrinka rallied in the second set. Never facing a break point, he soon took the set 6-3 and forced a third set. With each man saving one lone break point against them in the final set, a tiebreak was needed to decide who would move into the final four.

A fired up Wawrinka used his penetrating groundstrokes to gain an early 3-0 lead in the tiebreak. Wawrinka did not let go of his advantage as he went on to win 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).

Wawrinka will now face No. 5 seed Julien Benneteau in the semis. Benneteau won an all-French quarterfinal versus Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3.

Follow Erik Gudris on Twitter @ATNtennis


 

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