Tennis: Verdasco, Andreev in Croatia Open final
Associated Press
UMAG, Croatia — Top-seeded Fernando Verdasco needed less than an hour to beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-1, 6-3 today in the semifinals of the Croatia Open.
In the final, Verdasco will face fourth-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia, who beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
Verdasco dominated the seventh-seeded Fognini from the start with the Italian appearing tired after beating five-time defending champion Carlos Moya in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Verdasco to a quick 3-0 lead and quickly won the first set.
Fognini recovered to lead 3-1 but Verdasco broke back and won all the remaining games of the 59-minute match.
Andreev struggled a bit with Gonzalez — ranked 101st and playing his first ATO semifinals. In the second set, Andreev served for the match twice — at 5-4 and 6-5 — but was broken both times and only managed to win in a tie break.
Andreev admitted he had "some problems" in the second set.
"I'm happy I was able to finish the match," he said.