IMAGE: Andy Murray will face Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka in the Doha semis. Photograph: ATP Tour/Twitter
Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic took down Russian No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Thursday in Doha.
Rublev, who survived a third-set tiebreaker to beat Dutch opponent Tallon Griekspoor in the previous round, fired 10 aces but couldn’t break Lehecka’s serve in the second or third sets. Lehecka won 14 of 15 total service games despite Rublev holding a 36-26 edge in winners.
Lehecka will face Great Britain’s Andy Murray in the semi-finals after Murray rallied past French qualifier Alexandre Muller 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. It will be his 102nd ATP Tour semis appearance.
No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia will square off in the other semifinal. Auger-Aliassime downed No. 7 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 7-6 (5) on Thursday while Medvedev battled past Christopher O’Connell of Australia 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
Open 13 Provence
No. 1 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland dropped his first set before rallying past Switzerland’s Leandro Riedi 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in second-round action at Marseille, France.
Hurkacz fired seven of his 12 aces in the first set but still fell behind. He won all 25 of his first-serve points across the second and third sets and finished 38-for-42 (90.5 percent) for the match. Hurkacz also saved five of six break points.
No. 2 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy withdrew due to illness, allowing French 18-year-old Arthur Fils to advance via walkover. No. 6 seed David Goffin of Belgium also withdrew, citing a left knee injury, and Mikael Ymer of Sweden moved on via walkover.
Third seed Alex de Minaur of Australia beat Swiss qualifier Alexander Ritschard 6-3, 6-3, while fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer.
Rio Open
Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain outlasted Italy’s Fabio Fognini 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 in 2 hours, 47 minutes during their second-round match in Rio de Janeiro.
In the quarter-finals, Alcaraz will face Dusan Lajovic, who produced a 6-2, 6-4 win in an all-Serbian matchup against Laslo Djere.
Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain upset No. 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
Fellow Argentine Sebastian Baez fared better, as the sixth seed eked past Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas 7-5, 7-6 (6). Seventh seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain and qualifier Nicolas Jarry of Chile also advanced.
Coco Gauff reaches Dubai semis
IMAGE: American Coco Gauff in action during her Dubai Tennis Championships quarter-final against compatriot Madison Keys on Thursday. Photograph: Satish Kumar/Reuters
Fifth-seeded Coco Gauff won an all-American quarter-final on Thursday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, beating Madison Keys 6-2, 7-5 in the United Arab Emirates.
Gauff saved the only break point she faced in the 81-minute match, and she converted four of her five break opportunities.
The result moves Gauff into a semi-final matchup with top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland, the reigning French Open champion. Swiatek, who got a walkover into the semis when the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova couldn’t play because of a viral illness, has lost no more than one game in nine of past 10 sets.
The other semi-final will feature third-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. Pegula got a quarter-final walkover when the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova withdrew due to an abdominal injury. Krejcikova came from behind to upset second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belurus 0-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Merida Open Akron
Top-seeded Magda Linette was on the verge of heading to a third set, but instead the Polish player advanced to the quarterfinals in Merida, Mexico, when Hungary’s Panna Udvardy was forced to retire due to an ankle injury.
Linette won the first set 6-0 but trailed the second 5-2 when Udvardy had to stop. Udvardy was rallying even though she had won just 40 percent of her first-serve points (10 of 25) and none of her 10 second-serve points.
Second-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States edged Russia’s Varvara Gracheva 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (5) in second-round action, and Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson upset fifth-seeded U.S. player Alycia Parks 6-4, 6-2. In the last match of the night, fourth-seeded Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic downed Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure 6-0, 7-5.
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