Gilles Muller (ATP-44) has deprived the Ricoh Open of top seed David Ferrer. The seventh seed survived an opening set defeat against the former number three to win: 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).<\/p>
The difference in their play is very cleary visible. Ferrer wants to dictate the match from the baseline, while Muller is a real fan of service volley and also goes to the net as soon as possible in rallies.<\/p>
It was the player from Luxembourg who created the first break chance in the second game, but one game later it was Ferrer who caused actual damage on the service of his opponent.<\/p>
In the second set Muller gifted a break chance to Ferrer in the second game through careless play, but he won the game after all with strong serving. Both men were aggressive in their own service games until Ferrer served at 5-4 to stay in the game.<\/p>
Muller really concentrated on the game which came to 15-40. He forced a decisive set point on his second chance with a strong backhand return.<\/p>
In the third set Ferrer was 0-30 up twice in the service game of his opponent, and both times Muller escaped. The players reached a tiebreak in which Muller got rid of a minibreak\u00a0 and built an advantage over his opponent at 3-3 after an unsuccessful lob by Ferrer.<\/p>
Muller continued to 6-3, saw two matchpoints being lost, but attacked at his third match point after an unsuccessful passing shot by his opponent.<\/p>
Muller has to defeat Ivo Karlovic (ATP-28) to reach the final. The Croatian won his match against France\u2019s Adrian Mannarino (ATP-55).<\/p>