Harpal Singh Bedi
Pune, 4 February; On a day of upsets ,Emil Ruusuvuori (Finland) stunned defending champion Jiri Vesely and Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak shocked second seed Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) to setup semi-final clash at the Tata Open Maharashtra at the Balewadi Stadium here on Friday.
Emil Ruusuvuori and Kamil Majchrzak recorded contrasting victories in their quarter-finals
Ruusuvuori ousted Jiri Vesely 6-3, 6-4 while Polish player beat Musetti in a thrilling three-setter 6-2, 6-7(7-5), 6-4, in the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old Ruusuvuori, who opened his campaign by defeating last edition’s runner-up Egor Gerasimov, extended his victory run in the tournament as he took just one hour and 17 minutes to complete the straight sets victory over Vesely without breaking a sweat.
The 26-year-old Majchrzak started the match confidently against World No. 66 Musetti and convincingly pocketed the first set.
But Musetti re-energised his batteries and got his rhythm back in the second set, which witnessed an intense battle as it went into tie-breaker where the Italian rising star came out on top and levelled the scores, taking the match into the decider.
“It was very difficult because after the first set Lorenzo changed his tactics. He made me play longer rallies and he actually found his rhythm so it was difficult from almost the beginning of the second set. Maybe, I was not returning good enough to put pressure on his service games,” Majchrzak said after the match.
When it seemed the 19-year-old Musetti, a youngest player to break into the Top-100, would make a comeback into the contest, World No. 95 Majchrzak found his mojo back and put up a strong show to seal the set as well as the match.
“He (Majchrzak) was serving really well. I’m upset as it was so close in the end. I won a great second set and was playing better. I think I was leading the game in the third set and felt I could win. At the moment, I’m sad about the match but I have to take what it is and try to rectify my mistakes and come out a better player next week,” Musetti said after his defeat .