Muller Topples Ferrer In ‘s-Hertogenbosch

Gilles Muller fired 17 aces en route to a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) upset of top seed David Ferrer at the Ricoh Open on Friday. The powerful left-hander saved four of five break points and secured victory on his third match point. He will face another big server, Ivo Karlovic, in the semi-finals.

“I’ve lost a few very close matches this year, so it feels good to win like that,” Muller said. “David is a great returner, so that pushed me to serve very close to the lines and to make it too good. He forced me to miss a lot of first serves. Today was a very up-and-down match, so if I want to improve, I have to stay calm and focus on what I can do.”

After dropping the opening set, Muller scored his lone service break of the match on the final point of the second set. The Luxembourg native then saved three break points in the final set to secure his first win against Ferrer, the 2008 and 2012 ‘s-Hertogenbosch champion. The pair’s lone previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting came at the 2004 Australian Open.

The 33-year-old Muller and Karlovic, 37, have never faced each other at tour-level. However, last year’s semi-finalist has a definite idea of how his opponent will play, especially on a fast grass court.

“I expect him to serve some aces. He’s probably the best server out there. I’ll have to do my best to put the ball in the court on my returns,” added Muller.

True to form, Karlovic struck 22 aces in defeating Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4. The Croatian only dropped three points on his first serve and was not broken in the 62-minute encounter.

Fifth seed Sam Querrey ended the run of 18-year-old Stefan Kozlov with a 6-3, 6-0 semi-final victory. Querrey did not drop serve and broken his countryman four times in the 55-minute match. Kozlov was making his first quarter-final appearance at an ATP World Tour event.