Top-seeded Holger Rune overcame an error-filled start Friday to defeat Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 and advance to the semifinals of the Nordic Open in Stockholm.
Rune, of Denmark, is seeking his second Stockholm championship to follow his 2022 title. He hit 83% of his first serves (40 of 48) and rode 12 aces to the win over the Argentine. Rune survived a third-set medical timeout to have his left thigh wrapped.
In the next round, Rune will meet France’s Ugo Humbert, the fourth seed, who came from behind to beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-7 (3), 6-0, 6-3. Also victorious was second-seeded Casper Ruud, who topped Sebastian Korda 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4. The Norwegian will play the winner of the match between Denis Shapovalov of Canada, the third seed, and Elias Ymer of Sweden.
Almaty Open
Daniil Medvedev continued his late-season run, advancing to his third consecutive semifinal with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Fabian Marozsan of Hungary in Kazakhstan.
Medvedev, the second seed, fired his longtime coach after the U.S. Open, and the Russian is finding his game again. He made the semis in Beijing and Shanghai, and now has set a semifinal date with Australian qualifier James Duckworth, who knocked out third-seeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-3, 6-2. It will be Duckworth’s second semifinal in Almaty, having qualified in 2021.
The other semifinal will feature the sixth seed, Alex Michelsen, and France’s Corentin Moutet. Michelsen defeated Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, and Moutet topped Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 7-5.
European Open
Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime moved to the semifinal round in Brussels with a 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory against unseeded American Eliot Spizzirri.
Auger-Aliassime fired 11 aces and won points on 82% (40 of 49) of his first serves. In the semifinals, he will face Raphael Collignon of Belgium, who downed Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6 (5), 6-1.
France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard captured a spot in the other semifinal with his 6-4, 7-6 (8) victory against top-seeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy. Waiting for him is Jiri Lehecka of Czechia, who was leading 4-1 in the third set when France’s Benjamin Bonzi retired in their quarterfinal match because of a leg injury.
–Field Level Media
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