Tennis Malaysian Open 2009

Fourth seed Fernando Gonzalez moved into his sixth semi final of the year when he defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 in one hour 20 minutes. Following the Chilean in the evening session of play was second seed Fernando Verdasco who moved past Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-4 in one hour 31 minutes.


Earlier top seed Nikolay Davydenko and third seed Robin Soderling won through to the semi finals. Davydenko defeated Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-3 in one hour 13 minutes and Soderling stopped Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-2 in one hour four minutes.

Gonzalez wasted no time in opening up a 4-1 lead in the first set. His first serve percentage wasn’t great, it was 59% but he won 81% of those points. Youzhny meanwhile was at a first serve percentage of 68% but was winning77%. The Chilean only needed that one break and he served out the set to love in the ninth game.

In the second set Gonzalez lifted his level and that first serve was at 64% and he was still winning 81% of those points. The Russian’s rate had dropped significantly and he was being put under a lot of pressure with his service games. In the vital seventh game he cracked and Gonzalez was able to pounce and break serve and eventually claim victory.

Verdasco and Gasquet played a highly entertaining match that saw quite a few momentum swings. First Gasquet went up 3-0, Verdasco followed with the next three games as the big crowd lapped up the excitement. The eleventh game saw Gasquet go up 30/0 but Verdasco won the next four points to break. He then managed to hold serve after facing six deuces and five break points. That gave him the set.

The second set went with serve till 3-3 but in the seventh game Gasquet had a terrible service game – he didn’t win a point and dropped it with a double fault. That was the opportunity Verdasco needed and he closed out the match to love with his serve.