Gojowczyk Edges Newport Defending Champ Karlovic

Peter Gojowczyk ousted Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open defending champion and second seed Ivo Karlovic, saving a match point en route to a tight 7-6(5), 6-7(1), 7-6(4) victory on Thursday.

“I’m very happy. It’s my second [semi-final],” said Gojowczyk. “I was once in 2013 in Doha. I was there, playing well, too, and now I’m here in Newport and enjoying it.” 

The 28-year-old German withstood 30 aces from his Croatian opponent and saved all three break points he faced to advance to the semi-finals after two hours and 26 minutes. Gojowczyk improved his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Karlovic to 2-0.

“In the end it didn’t go my way. That’s life, that’s tennis. That’s how it goes sometimes,” said Karlovic, who held a match point at 5-4 in the third set. “I was not really moving well… Serve was good. Volleys were OK so I have to look at the positives and continue with my journey.”

The 38 year old had reached three straight finals at this ATP World Tour 250 grass-court tournament, and reflected on the end of the streak. “It was a good run. But this year was a little bit short. Hopefully next year will be more than this.”

Gojowczyk, currently No. 131 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face Matthew Ebden for a place in the final. The Aussie reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final with a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 win over Tobias Kamke, firing six aces to prevail in two hours and 41 minutes.

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Aussie Teams Reach Semi-finals

The all-Aussie pair of Alex Bolt and Andrew Whittington advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over second seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky. They next face their compatriots, Matt Reid and John-Patrick Smith, who advanced to the last four with a 7-6(5), 7-6(4) victory over third seeds Purav Raja and Divij Sharan.

Sam Groth continued the strong showing for the Australian contingent, as he teamed up with India’s Leander Paes for a 6-4, 6-1 win over Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak. The third seeds will face top seeds Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram in the semi-finals.