By Tennis Now | Friday, October 19, 2018

Ernests Gulbis always believed he had another title run in him.

Now, the 30-year-old Gulbis is channeling that belief into action.

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The 145th-ranked Latvian qualifier battled by Jack Sock, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, into the Stockholm Open semifinals.

It is Gulbis' first ATP semifinal since he reached the final four at the 2015 Vienna.

Gulbis, who won two matches in qualifying, is aiming for his seventh career title and first since he won Nice in May of 2014.

The 2013 Stockholm semifinalist will play either top-seeded John Isner or Australian Open quarterfinalist Tennys Sandgren for a spot in Sunday's final.

The former Roland Garros semifinalist saved five of seven break points beating Sock for the first time.

It's a stinging defeat for Sock, a two-time Stockholm finalist, who fell to 7-19 on the season.

The fourth-seeded Sock served out the opening set at love with a twisting kick serve.

The Gulbis backhand is his most sound stroke. The Latvian stung his two-hander down the line then ripped a crosscourt forehand breaking for a 2-0 second-set lead.

Gulbis made that break stand in tearing through the rest of the second set to force a decider.

Staring down break point in the fifth game of the decider, Sock got the forehand he wanted. But the Paris Indoors champion flagged a forehand into the tape then smacked his Babolat racquet against his shoe in rage gifting the break and 3-2 lead to Gulbis.

Gulbis broke again for 5-2, but could not serve it out. Sock slashed a forehand down the line breaking back for 3-5.

Serving for the semifinals a second time, Gulbis finished the two hour, 16-minute triumph with a flourish ladling a forehand drop volley winner to close. 

Second-seeded Fabio Fognini will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in tomorrow's semifinals.

Fognini held a 7-5, 2-1 lead in today's opening quarterfinal when opponent Hyeon Chung retired. 

"It's never easy to play and to win because my opponent retired," Fognini said. "So hopefully his injury is not serious and he will recover well because we are almost at the end of the season and I wish him the best of luck in recovery. 

"I'm tired of course because today I wake up with a little pain in my back because it was almost 10 days I was not playing to recover my ankle. But I play really good. Another time here in the semifinals in Stockholm so hopefully to recover well and prepare as best as I can for the semifinals."

The third-seeded Tsitsipas saved three of four break points ina  6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber. 

Kohlschreiber served for the second set at 5-3, but Tsitsipas wasn't through.



"You know sometimes it feels like the opponent has the momentum, but if you managed to stay concentrated and focus on your game and fight on every single point miracles can happen," Tsitsipas. "It was a great fighting spirit from my side, believed I could do well despite being down a break, fought well and it paid off in the end."

Hammering a heavy forehand winner behind Kohlschreiber, Tsitsipas broke back leaving the German veteran shaking his head at opportunity lost.

Exploiting his opponent's deep return position, Tsitsipas serve-and-volleyed closing a love hold to level after 10 games.

In the tiebreak, Tsitsipas ripped a forehand winner then exploited three straight errors for triple match point before closing in 95 minutes.