Stan Wawrinka through to St Petersburg Open semi-finals

The final of the St Petersburg Open will bring together two players of contrasting experience, in Stan Wawrinka and Alexander Zverev. The biggest prospect among all youngsters on the Tour has already play finals on clay and grass, and he now mastered the indoor surface as well, proving that he will be a force to reckon in all conditions.

The Spaniard had two set points in the tiebreaker and saved one of his opponent’s before Wawrinka converted his second set point. Three more deuces followed in his next service game before he had to save a pair of break points just to keep pace in his third. Bautista Agut has now won the past two matches.

The second set was nearly a carbon copy of the first as Zverev broke early again and kept his lead through to close out his first ever win over Berdych in their fifth head-to-head meeting. Zverev was in a nice rhythm throughout the match, playing consistent tennis and having a nice shot selection, without drops in concentration that he usually have.

This time Simon went a set up but could not close out the second and ran out of steam as the Austrian prevailed 4-6 7-5 6-3. “But if I play like I did today I think I’ve a good chance tomorrow”. Sascha was 40-15 up in game 8 and he wasted 4 game points in total before Tomas created his first break point of the match.

Zverev plays either U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland or Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.

Earlier, Bautista Agut, 28, rallied from a set down to see off Portuguese eighth seed Joao Sousa 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Wawrinka lines up a backhand during his semifinal win. He would push Wawrinka to deuce in the next game before holding another break point in the 11th game.

Berdych, who has won 12 ATP titles most recently in Stockholm and Shenzhen previous year, took the opening set in 35 minutes with a break in the 10th game, breaking early in the second.