Second seed Fernando Verdasco will face up and coming Canadian Milos Raonic in the semi-finals of the Estoril Open here on Saturday after the pair each finished up rain-interrupted matches which began on Friday. Verdasco, fighting to return to the ATP Top 15, overcame South African seventh seed Kevin Anderson 6-7 (2/7), 6-2, 6-3 while the 27th-ranked Raonic beat fourth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-3. Raonic beat Verdasco in two previous meetings this season, in the San Jose final – the first title for Raonic – and a week later in a Memphis first round. Raonic won with seven aces and five breaks of the Simon serve, taking two-and-a-half hours to go through in his first ATP season on clay.
Simon lead 5-6 when play was suspended by darkness on Friday, and returned to drop the set in a tiebreaker, Raonic went down two breaks in the second, but recovered before Simon again took a lead to level the match at a set each. In the third, the Frenchman saved two match points before Raonic prevailed. The first semi-final will feature Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay against his good friend Juan Martin del Potro, the Argentine eighth seed, who is building up some form after missing much of 2010 recovering from wrist surgery. Saturday’s women’s final at the Estadio Nacional was also interrupted by the rain. However, Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues came back out after the pause to round off her victory against German Kristina Barrois 6-1, 6-2 in 75 minutes with six breaks of her 29-year-old opponent’s serve.
Medina Garrigues was playing her first WTA final of the year, but 16th of her career and first since 2009.
The Spaniard now holds nine clay titles, level with leader Venus Williams among active players. Earlier, Argentine Juan Martin del Potro came from 4-1 down in the second set to beat top seed Robin Soderling 6-4, 7-5 here in the quarter-finals. Del Potro led 6-4 but trailed in the second when heavy rain arrived to interrupt afternoon play as he faced the Swede whom he had never played on clay.
After the storms passed, del Potro – who saved five of six break points and served six aces – came back out in fading light and broke Soderling twice to win after just under two hours of play.
