Fognini Earns Birthday Win For Geneva SF Spot

Fabio Fognini celebrated his 31st birthday with a quarter-final victory on Thursday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The second-seeded Italian recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the first set en route to beating American Tennys Sandgren 7-6(3), 7-6(5) in just under two hours.

This year’s Argentina Open champion (d. Jarry) led 3-0 in the second set and had the first of his four match-point opportunities at 6-5, Ad-Out, on Sandgren’s serve. Fognini will next attempt to beat Germany’s Peter Gojowczyk, who defeated seventh seed Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3.

American Steve Johnson got the better of another player contesting two singles matches on Thursday, Guido Pella, 6-3, 6-4 for a place in the semi-finals. He will next play third seed and two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka or Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics on Friday.

Earlier in the day, World No. 81 Pella beat top seed Sam Querrey 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-6(4) in two hours and 33 minutes, while Johnson defeated qualifier Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in just under two hours. Pella had also beaten Querrey in a third set tie-break last month in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship second round.

Did You Know?
Fabio Fognini, who fell to Rafael Nadal in last week’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-finals, is six spots off his career-high of No. 13 in the ATP Rankings (31 March 2013).