Simon sails through to Semi

Simon

The Frenchman world No 10 who looks like the X-Men  protagonist was  kept at bay in the first set due to the big groudnstrokes from the Russian before employing solid tennis to lure errors from the impatient world No 66.

"It was hard to play him.  He played amazing tennis in the first two sets. He really gave me any chance in  the first set and hit the ball really hard. Finally my plan was to hold my serves and wait for his mistakes ,'' said The world No 10 who sets up a semi-final match with sixth seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria.

"Melzer is a good player. I saw him play. He didn't miss the whole match . He is good in every part of the game. I expect a hard match."

The world No 44 Melzer used all round game to confuse the unseeded German to reach his second semi-finals of the year apart from his first in Umag, Croatia in June. He won the match in just against Beck in just 66 minutes.

"It looked easy but it was not easy. I played a really good match. I put a lot of pressure on him with my serves. I'm happy with the way I play and with the way I serve throughout this tournament as I have yet to drop my service games,'' said the 28 year old Austria.

"Simon is a top 10 player. He is talented. But I don't care who I'm playing because if I keep up with this level, it will be tough to beat me,'' said the Austrian.