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Melzer upsets Isner in Memphis quarterfinal

The Austrian, who broke his toe a week earlier in his hotel room, has won three straight matches at The Racquet Club to reach the semifinals. He will next play Radek Stepanek, a 7-6 (5), 6-0 winner over American Sam Querrey.

Defending champion Milos Raonic of Canada also moved into the semifinals with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Belgian Olivier Rochus.

Raonic, who has already won two titles this year, will be favorite to win his semi against Benjamin Becker of Germany who beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 7-5, 7-6 (5).

On the women’s side, Marina Erakovic of New Zealand beat Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 and will play Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden in Saturday’s Memphis International final. Arvidsson defeated Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-3, 7-5.

Arvidsson is a previous winner in Memphis while Erakovic will be looking for her first WTA-level title.

Isner came in as the top seed in a tournament for only the second time in his career. He was 6-2 this year and ranked 13^th in the world, and the 6-foot-9 American had served up 48 aces while winning his first two matches.

Now, he’s leaving Memphis still looking for his first title of 2012.

“I don’t feel like I lost this match today,” Isner said. “He won it. He was better than me, and he deserved it. He played really well. That’s all there is to it. I just ran up against a guy who’s clicking on all cylinders.”

Melzer has three titles in his career and is working his way back toward a top-10 ranking after back troubles last year. He’s playing well enough this week that not even the toe he caught up in a bedspread is bothering him.

“It’s very nice to beat the top seed, but for me it’s more important that my game is getting better,” Melzer said.

“My body holds up. ... I had a lot of troubles with my back last year. It’s nice to be able to play pain-free on the court, putting the toe aside. OK, that’s going to heal, and going out there especially when there’s an important point. I have been playing well this week. That’s what made me top 10 in the world and (I’m) trying to do that again.”

Melzer broke in the first and last games of the opening set to win the opening frame comfortably, but it was a tighter struggle in the second.

Isner saved two match points down 4-5 and trailing 15-40, serving three aces to hold and keep the match on serve. Having won all his tiebreakers this year, Isner would have been confident of levelling at a set all, and he did have a set point but could not close it out.

“On the match point, he hit a return off the back of the line. Hit that same exact return earlier when I was up 3-2 or something like that. He was just painting the lines a lot today, going for his shots, and they were all going in.”

Stepanek came to Memphis after spending four days in bed at home in Florida sick and not practicing. Now he’s back in his third semifinal at Memphis with his first win over Querrey in three matches.

The Czech was up 5-2 with a chance to close out Querrey in the first set. Querrey recovered to force the tiebreaker and was ahead 4-1 before Stepanek took over. He needed a moment to fix a contact lens, then won six of the final seven points.

Dispirited by that surrender, Querrey was poor in the second set, winning only two return points and failing to hold serve once.

“He was not able to close out the tiebreak. (That) was in his mind a little bit in the beginning of the second set,” Stepanek said. “That’s where I took the chances and played aggressive and active and got the lead in the second set.”

Raonic improved to 14-1 this year, and he nearly closed out his latest match leading 5-4 in the second set when Rochus broke.

“I felt there were a few games I just let up a little bit,” Raonic said. “In the end of it, not much I could do better. I just wish I kept the intensity up.”