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LOS ANGELES : Defending champion and second seed Sam Querrey of the United States outlasted Serbian sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 on Saturday to reach the ATP Los Angeles Classic finals.
Querrey will play for the title on Sunday against the winner of a later semi-final between British top seed Andy Murray and Spanish fourth seed Feliciano Lopez.
Tipsarevic opened the third set with the first break of the match, denied Querrey on three break points in the second game after falling behind 0-40, then held to 2-0 on a net cord winner and a Querrey lob that landed wide.
Querrey broke back to 3-3 when Tipsarevic netted a forehand in the sixth game to surrender his first break of the match.
Tipsarevic squandered four break-point chances in the ninth game as Querrey held for a 5-4 lead and then the Serbian sent a backhand wide to give Querrey a break and match point in the 10th game.
Querrey netted a forehand but a double fault by Tipsarevic gave Querrey a second match point and this time he did not falter, taking the match when the Serbian sent a backhand beyond the baseline.
Querrey squandered five set points in Tipsarevic's final service game of the first set, which went into a tie-breaker that the Serb dominated, bashing two service winners for a 6-1 lead.
After becoming upset over an umpire's call that one of his serves nicked the net, Querrey responded with a pair of forehand winners, but Tipsarevic then bashed a forehand winner to claim the opening set.
The second set went to a tie-breaker as well and once again Tipsarevic jumped ahead, a pair of forehand winners giving him a 5-1 edge.
But this time, the American answered the challenge, swatting a forehand winner, two backhand winners and a service winner to level the tie-breaker.
Tipsarevic sent a backhand long to give Querrey a chance to claim the set and the Serbian then netted a backhand to send the match to a third set.
- AFP /ls
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