Thaindian News

Chennai, Jan 8 (IANS) Xavier Malisse proved that age is not necessarily a factor at the competitive level as he ousted a younger Janko Tipsarevic, the sixth seed, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to enter the final of the Aircel ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here Saturday.The seventh seeded Belgian awaits the winner of the second semi-final between top seed Tomas Berdych and No.3 Stanislas Wawrinka.

Wawrinka beat eighth seed Robin Haase 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, in a match that finished in the wee hours of Saturday following stoppage due to rains.

Malisse, winner here in 2007, managed to stay in the contest after losing the first set when he decided to go for broke.

“When you are set down, you need to take some risks. You have to take it to them as they are too good to just stay back. I did just that and went for my shots,” said the 30-year-old Malisse.

“I also became aggressive in the second set and he began to make mistakes. I got my backhand down the lines going and started feeling better and better.”

For the 24-year old Tipsarevic, the match that had started off so well, turned into a nightmare as his serve deserted him and unforced errors flowed from his racquet.

The Serbian No.2 opened with a break in the second game and then went on to take the first set and looked set to race away with the match.

However, in the second, Malisse surged back on breaks in the second and fifth to tie the match and repeated the performance in the decider to win the match in one hour, 37 minutes.

For Malisse, it has been a good start to the year as he hoped to build on it to achieve strong results, though he is aware of the vagaries of pro tennis that have pegged his career.

“Obviously, it has been frustrating at I had to deal with injuries to my wrist and knee after winning here in 2007. The following year, I injured my other wrist, dropped to 300s and had to start all over again,” Malisse said reviewing his career that has never really taken off.