Summary Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Dominic Thiem 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3) to reach semifinals of the Erste Bank Open.
VIENNA (AP) - Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outlasted the 149th-ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3) Friday to reach the semifinals of the Erste Bank Open.
Tsonga will take on Robin Haase of the Netherlands for a place in Sunday s final, while second-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany faces Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic in the other semifinal.
The eighth-ranked Frenchman, who won the event in 2011, missed a match point at 5-4 in the final set but converted his second chance in the tiebreaker after 2 hours, 15 minutes as Thiem hit a forehand long.
"I was really poor from the baseline but I served well," said Tsonga, who had 16 aces. "I have played many matches like this so I have the experience.
That made the difference. I am not in a good shape, I have to fight to win matches."
The 20-year-old Thiem, who played in only his second quarterfinal, said the match was "unbelievable."
"A third-set tiebreaker means the match could have gone either way," Thiem said. "I am proud I could match a top-10 player."
Haas reached his seventh semifinal of the season by defeating fifth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (10), 6-3. The victory kept the 12th-ranked German in the running to qualify for next month s ATP World Tour Finals in London.
"I live from match to match," said Haas, who has never before played in the season-ending event.
Haas failed to serve out the opening set at 6-5 but won the tiebreaker after saving four set points for Stepanek. He converted his only break point in the second set.
"It was mentally and physically tough," the second-seeded Haas said. "The tiebreaker was really great from both of us. I felt it was important to win it. If I d lost it, I would have been very frustrated."
Haase, who won both his career titles in Austria, rallied to defeat third-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1 to advance to his fourth semifinal of the season.
Haase didn t face a break point in the entire match. Fognini had 32 baseline errors and ended the match with his second double-fault.
"I had my chances in the first set as well but lost it as he played an incredible passing shot," Haase said. "When I was 3-1 up in the decider and won five straight points from 40-0 down, I knew I wasn t going to lose this match."
Earlier, Rosol beat Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Rosol broke the 176th-ranked qualifier once each in the first and final sets to reach his second career semifinal, and first since winning his maiden title in Bucharest in April.
