Ram saves 2 match points to reach Newport semi-finals

Rajeev Ram continued his upset run at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships ATP grass court tournament on Thursday, saving two match points against French fifth seed Adrian Mannarino to book his semi-final berth.

The 161st-ranked Ram, who ousted top-seeded American John Isner in the first round, needed two hours and 34 minutes to get past Mannarino 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/2).

He trailed an early break in the third before battling back to win the tiebreaker.

"Mannarino is such a tough opponent because he absorbs pace so well," said Ram, who won his lone ATP title at Newport in 2009.

"I could hit through the court a bit here with my forehand, so I tried to find a way to break him down," added Ram, who will face Australian southpaw John-Patrick Smith for a place in the final.

Smith saved all three break points he faced in beating Japan's Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-3.

The remaining two quarter-finals will be played on Friday, with second-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic taking on Germany's Dustin Brown and fourth-seeded American Jack Sock facing Czech qualifier Jan Hernych.

Brown lined up his clash with Karlovic by finishing off a rain-disrupted second-round match against American Sam Querrey 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Brown -- who shocked Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon -- was up a break in the third set when play resumed on Thursday morning.

"It wasn't easy coming back today, knowing all I had to do was to hold serve," he said. "I definitely hit a lot of serves during my warm-up. Having been on the tour for a while, I've run into these types of situations before.

"There's no use thinking about whether we could have finished the match last night. All you can do is to stick with it and warm up the serve. I'm happy that I kept it together."

Brown has won two of his three prior meetings with Karlovic, but the Croat won their most recent encounter at Delray Beach earlier this year.
Source: AFP