After his match, Jack Sock announced that he had awoken with 'flu like symptons' and couldn't believe that he had then gone on to play his best tennis of his career. If that's the case, then Jack Sock could do with feeling under the weather a bit more often as he produced the best tennis of his career to date to come from behind and defeat top seed David Ferrer to reach the ASB Classic final in Auckland.
Sock to meet Bautista Agut in Auckland final
The Nebraskan born Sock had lost the opening set to the Spanish world no.8 and four time champion at this event, but then fought back and blasted Ferrer almost at will off the court and into his third ATP World Tour final.
The American is set to play Stan Wawrinka in the third round at the Australian Open, the draw taking place overnight, and based on this performance, the French Open champion is going to have to do something pretty special to overcome one of the game's brightest young stars.
Sock would only lose three games in the second and final sets, as he looks to claim career title number two tomorrow. He is set to move to a career high world no.21 in Monday morning's new rankings, and with no points to defend until Indian Wells (and playing a lot of tennis in between), Sock could very well be on the verge of the top-10 come March. He'll play Roberto Bautista Agut for the title, after he too came from a set down, and beat the second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Defending champ Troicki and Dimitrov come through busy day in Sydney
Viktor Troicki and Grigor Dimitrov came through quarter-final and semi-final matches to set-up a Sydney showdown tomorrow morning. Troicki, the defending champion, came from behind in both his matches to reach the final again, first overcoming Nicolas Mahut and then Teymuraz Gabashvili, who had earlier in the day reached his first ATP semi-final (winning his first ATP quarter-final at the 17th attempt), after opponent, top seed Bernard Tomic, retired, claiming "I have a good draw in Melbourne, it just came out"; the opening major obviously more important for him.
For Dimitrov, he needed just two more games to book his place in the last-four, overcoming the eighth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in their quarter-final meeting. The Bulgarian then comfortably reached his seventh career final, and his first since Stockholm in October 2014, by overcoming Luxembourg's Gilles Muller in straight sets; the fourth seed will be looking for title number five of his career, needing to beat the defending champion to do so.
Results:
ATP Auckland Semi-Finals:
Jack Sock bt David Ferrer (1) 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Roberto Bautista Agut (8) by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (2) 3-6, 7-6, 6-4
ATP Sydney Quarter-Finals:
Teymuraz Gabashvili bt Bernard Tomic (1) 6-3, 3-0r
Viktor Troicki (3) bt Nicolas Mahut 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
Grigor Dimitrov (4) bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (8) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Gilles Muller bt Jeremy Chardy (6) 7-6, 6-3
ATP Sydney Semi-Finals:
Viktor Troicki (3) bt Teymuraz Gabashvili 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Grigor Dimitrov (4) bt Gilles Muller 6-2, 7-6