David Goffin reaches Miami Open semifinal by rallying to defeat Gilles Simon

David Goffin

Miami, March 31 (IANS): Belgium's David Goffin lost the first set but stormed back to rout Frenchman Gilles Simon the rest of the way for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory in the Miami Open tennis quarter-finals.

Next up for the 15th-seeded Goffin in Friday's semifinals of this hard-court tournament, one of the biggest on the men's and women's tennis calendars, will be either World No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia or Czech No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych, reports Efe.

In a matchup of slightly built players with similar crafty playing styles on Wednesday, Goffin failed to convert all six of his break points en route to dropping the first set.

But he put Simon under more pressure in the second set to earn three service breaks and then completely dominated the third set to book a second straight berth in the semi-finals of a Masters 1000 event.

Goffin fell in three sets to big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, earlier in March.

In Wednesday's action in the women's draw, 13th-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka eased her way into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Britain's Johanna Konta.

Azarenka, who surprised American World No. 1 Serena Williams in the Indian Wells final, will next take on either power-serving American Madison Keys or German No. 2 seed and 2016 Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber of Germany.