Day of upsets at Chennai Open; Berdych, Cilic and Wawrinka crash out

CHENNAI, 4 JANUARY 2013: In what was a day of major surprises, three of the top four seeds were sent crashing out of the Aircel Chennai Open as top-seed Tomas Berdych and third-seed Marin Cilic lost to lower-ranked opponents.

World No. 6 Berdych was beaten by Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, while fifth-seed Benoit Paire from France got the better of World No. 15 Cilic 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to set up a semi-final clash with Agut.

Cilic was first up on Centre Court against Paire. The Frenchman took the topsy-tervy first set as the Croatian stormed back to wrap the second set in just over half an hour.

The deciding set saw each player break the other in the first four games only for two-time champion Cilic to slip up in the 12th game as Paire converted a match-point to move into the semi-finals.

Another former champion Stanislas Wawrinka was asked to pack his bags early as unseeded Slovenian Aljaz Bedene surprised everyone on Court One to win 6-2, 7-6(6).

Wawrinka, the World No. 17 is a huge crowd favorite at Chennai but losing the first set in just 26 minutes proved costly. The fourth-seed looked to hold his nerve in the hour-long second set as it went into a tie-break, in vain.

In the last singles match of the quarters, top-seed Berdych lost the first set on his own serve 5-7 as he rallied back to take the second one in no time, 6-2.

But Bautista Agut stood his ground as stunned spectators at the SDAT Stadium watched him make easy work the Czech. It finished 6-3 in the Spaniard’s favour, who set up a semi-final clash with Paire.

The only remaining seed of the top four: second seed and last year’s finalist Janko Tipsarevic. The Serbian stayed on course with a straight sets win to enter the semi-finals.

World No. 9 Tipsarevic didn’t even break into a sweat as he made light work of Japan’s Go Soeda 6-2, 6-4. ‘Tipsy’ took the first set against the eight-seed in 32 minutes and pushed on in the second set as well.

Tipsarevic, who beat Soeda in the semi-finals last year in Chennai, broke the Japanese player in the seventh game and then on held serve to win the match. He set up a semi-final clash with World No. 86, Aljaz Bedene, who beat Warwinka earlier,