PETE ZIEBRON
Americans Steve Johnson and Jack Sock each reached the finals and semi finals of each of their respective ATP 500 tournaments in Europe the past two weeks.
Last week, Johnson reached the final in Vienna, losing to #1 seed David Ferrer 6-4 4-6 5-7. As a result of his run to the final, Johnson reached a career high of world #33. Each round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna presented Johnson with a talented, veteran opponent and the American was able to defeat all of them en route to the final.
Steve Johnson's run in Vienna
R32 6-3 3-6 6-2 d. #35 Alexandr Dolgopolov
R16 6-4 6-7 6-4 d. #65 Jerzy Janowicz
QF 5-7 7-6 6-4 d. #11 Kevin Anderson
SF 6-3 7-6 d. #117 Ernests Gulbis
F 6-4 4-6 5-7 l. to #8 David Ferrer
Today, Johnson reached the semifinals in another ATP 500 in Valencia. Although he had match points, Johnson would come up short against The #7 seed Roberto Bautista Agut. However, this run to the Valencia Open semis will continue the positive trajectory of Johnson's ranking, leading to another career high when the new rankings come out on Monday morning. In his last three matches, Johnson has hit 34 aces and just 4 double faults.
Steve Johnson in action this week in Valencia
R32 6-3 6-4 d. #44 Martin Klizan
R16 6-4 7-6 d. #16 Feliciano Lopez
QF 7-5 6-4 d. #26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
SF 6-4 3-6 6-7 l. to #24 Roberto Bautista-Agut
Concurrent to Johnson, Jack Sock played in the other European ATP 500s the past two weeks. Sock reached the final last week in Stockholm and also lost to the top seed of the tournament, Tomas Berdych. Throughout the week, Sock defeated a pair of Spaniards and a pair of Frenchmen before reaching the final.
Jack Sock's run to the If Stockholm Open final
R32 6-3 6-7 6-3 d. #60 Pablo Carreno Busta
R16 7-6 6-7 6-4 d. #44 Fernando Verdasco
QF 7-5 7-6 d. #13 Gilles Simon
SF 6-4 6-2 d. #12 Richard Gasquet
F 6-7 2-6 l. to #5 Tomas Berdych
On his way to the semifinals in Basel, Sock defeated 3 Americans to set the stage with the tournament's defending Champion, Roger Federer. Today, Sock faced the top seed Roger Federer in his home country of Switzerland.
Jack Sock's run to the Swiss Indoors semifinals:
R32 6-4 6-3 d. #67 Denis Kudla
R16 7-6 6-3 d. #14 John Isner
QF 5-7 6-4 6-2 d. #49 Donald Young
SF 3-6 4-6 l. to #3 Roger Federer
Jack Sock returns to action next week at the BNP Paribas Masters at Paris Bercy. Although Johnson's current ranking would allow for entry into the Paris main draw, it was too high at the time the field was announced.