Tennis News

An intriguing encounter is set to take place in the semi-final round of the Open de Nice tournament on Friday afternoon in France. The final warm-up event ahead of the 2015 edition of the French Open will feature an enthralling contest between American No. 1 John Isner and Dominic Thiem. It will serve as the first ever meeting on the tour between the two talented competitors.

In a standard match on court last Thursday, John Isner defeated Serbian adversary Dusan Lajovic in straight sets to advance to the semi-final stage of the Open de Nice. He fired eight aces, won 76% of his first service points, converted just the one break point in the second set and saved both the break points he faced on serve during the match. He eventually finished the encounter 7-6(3), 6-4.

“I thought it was a pretty high quality match,” Isner told ATPWorldTour.com. “I played pretty well. As it is in a lot of my matches, it came down to a few points in the first and second sets.”

In a less-than-stellar quarter-final meeting on Thursday, Austria’s Dominic Thiem defeated Ernests Gulbis in straight set to advance to the final four in Nice. He struck two aces, won 75% of his first service points and converted four break points to secure the 6-2, 6-4 victory in one hour and 37 minutes. It was an impressive showing from the Austrian as he prepares for a tall task against the American.

This is just the first time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour and is an encounter with two separate, potential outcomes. However, it is likely that Isner will present a difficult challenge on serve for Thiem and he will likely advance to the tournament final following a tight straight sets encounter with a couple of tiebreaks.

Two of the top seeds at the Nurmemberg Open are safely through to the semi-final stage of the tournament, where they will now cross paths for a fifth time on the professional tour. Angelique Kerber and Roberta Vinci had cross paths on four previous occasions and split the head-to-head series 2-2 over the three-year length of the rivalry.

In a relatively straightforward encounter in the quarter-final stage of the tournament, Angelique Kerber advanced to the final four in Nuremberg with a straight sets victory against Misaki Doi. She struck one ace, 62 percent and converted six of seven break points to secure the 6-2, 6-3 win. The contest lasted a total of one hour and six minutes.

In one of the other four quarter-final matches on court that day, Roberta Vinci advanced to the semi-finals with a three set win against Kurumi Nara. It was a rollercaster affair that saw Vinci win 65% of her first service points and convert four break points to close out the match 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes. Vinci was the more solid returner of the two competitors, particularly in the first service returns, which helped her break serve enough times to secure the victory. In the end, she won 47% of return points, which is 8% more than Nara.

This is the fifth time that these two competitors will cross paths on the professional tour, with the head-to-head series split at 2-2. They have no met on the tour since Beijing in 2013 and only met on clay once during in those four matches. Kerber won that sole clay court meeting, which came in the form of a straight sets win at Stuttgart in 2012.