IMAGE: It was Roman Safiullin’s first time playing an ATP Tour quarter-final. Photograph: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images
Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin took down No. 1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 6-4, Friday in the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, France.
It was Safiullin’s first time playing an ATP Tour quarter-final and his first time facing Tsitsipas, the fourth-ranked player in the world. Tsitsipas saved five break points in the first game of the second set and saved four more in the third game, but Safiullin finally broke his serve to go up 2-1 and never trailed again.
In the semi-finals, Safiullin will face Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. The No. 3 seed was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Belarusian No. 5 seed Ilya Ivashka in the quarters. Auger-Aliassime won his first career ATP title last week in the Netherlands, beating Tsitsipas in the final.
Second-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia needed three sets to dispatch French wild card Lucas Pouille 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. He will advance to face another Frenchman, No. 9 seed Benjamin Bonzi, who upset Russian fourth seed Aslan Karatsev 6-1, 6-3.
ExxonMobil Open
No. 2 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain will meet No. 3 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in the finals in Doha, Qatar, after each player won his semi-final matchup on Friday.
Bautista Agut used two hours and 26 minutes to defeat Russian sixth seed Karen Khachanov 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Khachanov served up 17 aces to Bautista Agut’s two, but the Spaniard saved 10 of 12 break points to fend off his challenger.Basilashvili beat France’s Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 6-2, one day after Rinderknech upset the top seed in the draw, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov. Basilashvili won 27 of his 32 first-service points (84.4 percent), converted three of four break-point opportunities and saved both break points he faced.
Delray Beach Open
Top-seeded Cameron Norrie of Great Britain fell behind by a service break in the third set but broke back the next game and beat fifth-seeded Sebastian Korda of the United States 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (4) in the quarter-finals at Delray Beach, Fla.
Norrie’s semi-final opponent will be another American, fourth-seeded Tommy Paul, who crushed Stefan Kozlov 6-3, 6-1 in an all-US matchup.
Australia’s John Millman pulled off an upset on the other side of the bracket, beating third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-4. Next up for Millman is second-seeded Reilly Opelka of the United States, who got past seventh-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-1.
Rio Open
Rain disrupted play for the second day in a row in Rio de Janeiro, with only the last two second-round matches getting completed. The full quarterfinal round was postponed until Saturday.
Top-seeded Matteo Berrettini of Italy squandered two set points in the second-set tiebreaker but still prevailed 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 over Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro.
In a match that was suspended late in the first set on Thursday, seventh-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain ultimately got past Argentina’s Federico Delbonis 6-4, 7-6 (1). The two didn’t resume playing until 12:40 a.m. local time on Saturday and concluded at 1:47 a.m.
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