Radek Stepanek has continued his love affair with Brisbane winning through to his third semifinal in as many years with a comfortable straight sets upset of the men’s seventh seed, Florian Mayer.
The 32-year-old Czech veteran made light work of his younger German opponent breaking early to lead 2-1, consistently punishing any short second serves with forehands down the line and defying his age to cover the court with ease.
With wife and former women’s professional Nicole Vaidisova watching from the players’ box, Stepanek only directed looks of frustration to his support crew once, after failing to serve out the opening set at 5-2.
“I broke him straight away in the first game which was important for the rest of the game,” said Stepanek.
“I had one tough game at 2-1 in the first set, which was long. I had already 40-0 and then I was facing a break point so that was a little bit of an up and down game but I was able to hold my serve and then I had 100 per cent control of the whole match and I didn’t let him come back.”
Using an unorthodox double-handed slice backhand, Mayer tried to keep his opponent deep in his backhand corner and had some success finishing points off at the net.
But Stepanek was always in control and broke again to take the first set 6-3.
Currently ranked 62nd, the 2009 Brisbane champion and last year’s runner-up was untroubled on serve in the second set, holding his last three service games to love to close out the match 6-3 6-2 after an hour and 22 minutes.
“Everything suits me here. Since the first tournament here in 2009 I’ve felt on the court here very well and I had a win in ’09, finals in 2010.
“So definitely in the back of my mind there is always confidence from those years. Everything here suits me – on the court, off the court. I’m very pleased to play here in front of such a crowd which is here, you know it’s always an honour.
“When you win a tournament it’s obviously a favourite place where you want to go back.”
Stepanek will face the winner out of this afternoon’s quarterfinal between top-seeded Swede Robin Soderling and Australian qualifier Matt Ebden.
When you win a tournament it’s obviously a favourite place where you want to go back.
I broke him straight away in the first game which was important for the rest of the game.
I had one tough game at 2-1 in the first set which was long. I had already 40-0 and then I was facing a break point so that was a little bit of an up and down game but I was able to hold my serve and then I had 100% control of the whole match and I didn’t let him come back.