With seeded players dropping like drop shots, day five of the German Open took two more victims. Pablo Cuevas and Martin Klizan were able to advance to the semifinals, but the same cannot be said about Philipp Kohlschreiber and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
The results
An opening match of Cuevas vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu ended with the Argentinian winning in straight sets, 7-6(7), 6-1. The first six games came and went without a break point, but in the seventh, Cuevas reached one at 30-40; his French opponent saved one and then another to stay on serve. At 4-5, 30-40, Mathieu had set point. That one slipped away, and the two held serve to 6-6. In the tiebreak, the seventh seed saw three set points of his own before ending the set at 9-7. The rest of the match was all Cuevas. He broke in the second game, and again at 4-1 before a hold at 15 finished the match. One of the world number 24's biggest advantages came via the ace; he had 12 while the 34-year-old on the other side of the net fired off just one.
The second match of the day came with the first upset of the day. After two hours and 28 minutes, Stephane Robert defeated Garcia-Lopez, 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3. Despite getting the first break of the match in the second game and seeing five opportunities to take the first set, Garcia-Lopez couldn't get any to go his way. He eventually dug himself a one-set hole after getting outplayed in a tiebreak. The second set went a lot better as he broke serve twice, while being broken only once. In the third set, both players broke once through five games. That sixth game, however, proved to be a crucial one. Robert lead 0-40, but the Frenchman couldn't capitalize on any of the chances. He would eventually see two more break points before breaking serve after a third deuce. A one break lead was enough to finish the upset of the eight seed and set his place in the semifinal.
A three set victory over Kohlschreiber made Renzo Olivo the lowest-ranked player to advance to the semifinal; the top seed fell to the tune of 1-6, 6-0, 7-5. The score clearly shows how a dominant first set for the German turned into an embarrassing second set bagel. In the deciding set, Kohlschreibr lead, 4-2, 40-0. The match seemed to be all but over; then came the collapse. He lost that game, but still saw a match point at 30-40 two games later. At 5-4, the 32-year-old had a chance to serve out the set with another match point. That also didn't go his way, and he won just one more point for the rest of the match—losing the last three games. If that wasn't enough, Kohlschreiber also became the highest ranked player (number 22) that Olivo has beaten this year.
The quarterfinals concluded with seventh seed Klizan pasting Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight set, 6-4, 6-3. Both sets opened with the Slovak breaking serve, followed by the Spaniard immediately breaking back. Moreover, those were the right-hander's only breaks, while Klizan grabbed three others in the match. Lefties have proved to be Gimeno-Traver's kryptonite; this has been his eighth loss against a southpaw racquet wielder in his last ten matches against them.
Olivo will meet Cuevas in one semifinal, while Robert will meet Klizan in the other.
