Isner Sets All-American SF In Newport

Second seed John Isner continued his bid to reclaim the Newport title, advancing to the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over fellow American Dennis Novikov on Friday afternoon at the Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open. The top seed fired 20 aces and did not face a break point in the 73-minute victory. 

“Just one of those matches on a surface like this, with two pretty good servers, that’s how it can go – you just get one break and you try to hold onto it. That’s what I did,” he said. “I felt like in the second set I could have extended it to a two-break lead but a lot of times one break is all I need so I’m happy to get off the court in pretty quick fashion so I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

Two-time champion Isner (2011, ’12) will be looking to reach his first final since last November’s Rolex Paris Masters (l. to Murray) when he faces fellow American Bjorn Fratangelo for the first time.

“It’s going to be fun, I know John well and he knows me well,” said Fratangelo. “It’ll obviously be our first meeting but we’ve practised together a bunch and we’re pals… I’m going to have to return well and make sure my serve percentage is high… He’s not going to want to lose to me, so I think he’s going to come out with extra motivation… Hopefully I can put up a good battle.”

Fratangelo reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final after beating fourth seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, capitalising on four of his five break point chances to seal victory on his first match point opportunity after two hours and nine minutes.

“I feel like I’ve been returning well all week,” he said. “That’s one thing – I do have a good return and I feel like this week I’ve really been making sure that if I get a racquet on it I’m putting it in the court, and I’m doing a great job of that.”

Qureshi/Ram Prevail Against Groth/Paes 

In a hard-fought doubles semi-final, top seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Rajeev Ram battled past No. 3 seeds Sam Groth and Leander Paes 4-6, 7-6(6),11-9 in just under two hours. They will face Aussies Matt Reid and John-Patrick Smith on Saturday evening for the ATP World Tour 250 grass-court title. The Australians defeated compatriots Alex Bolt and Andrew Whittington 6-2, 4-6, 10-5.

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