Richard will play the winner of Raonic-Nieminen for a place in the Bangkok final. Today he defeated Bernard Tomic 7-6 6-4.
It was a tight match, Richard had to save three breakpoints in his first service game and many others were highly disputed. But he kept his head and won the breaker 7-5. In the second set, one break against the well serving Australian was enough to seal victory.
The day before, Richard was up against another promising youngster. Grigor Dimitrov served for the match at 7-5 5*-3, but two brilliant winners changed the momentum and Richard took full advantage to get the rebreak, hold and break the Bulgarian again for a 7-5 win. In the third set, Dimitrov did not disappear, but Richard beat him with variety, controlled aggression and patience for a 5-7 7-5 6-4 victory.
