Auger-Aliassime, Moutet Close In On Murray River Open Final
Third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime will attempt to reach his seventh ATP Tour final on Saturday when he plays Corentin Moutet of France at the Murray River Open.
Auger-Aliassime, who saved one match point against Egor Gerasimov of Belarus in a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) victory over two hours and 12 minutes earlier on Friday, earned his place in the last four when Czech Jiri Vesely retired due to a left shoulder injury. Auger-Aliassime had won the first set 7-6(3) in their quarter-final.
The 20-year-old Auger-Aliassime compiled a 23-19 match record in 2020, which includes three runner-up finishes at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam (l. to Monfils), the Open 13 Provence in Marseille (l. to Tsitsipas) and the bett1HULKS Indoors in Cologne (l. to Zverev).
[WATCH LIVE 2]Moutet recorded his second straight win over second-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 6-2 to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final in 13 months. The 21-year-old Frenchman advanced to the Qatar ExxonMobil Open final (l. to Rublev) in January 2020.
Auger-Aliassime leads Moutet 2-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including victories at 2019 Wimbledon and the 2020 US Open.
Earlier on Friday, Moutet had advanced to the last eight with a 7-6(4), 6-4 third-round victory against Australia’s James Duckworth. Dimitrov knocked out Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 in two hours and 23 minutes.
Koolhof/Kubot Through To Doubles Quarter-finals
Second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Lukasz Kubot overcame Radu Albot and Gerasimov 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 for a place in the quarter-finals. Koolhof partnered Nikola Mektic to the Nitto ATP Finals title (d. Melzer/Roger-Vasselin) in November 2020.
Koolhof and Kubot will next challenge fifth seeds Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin, who saved one set point at 5-6, 30/40 in the first set of their 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over Divij Sharan and Igor Zelenay.
Elsewhere, Britons Cameron Norrie and Jonny O’Mara beat third seeds and last year’s Australian Open titlists Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. They now prepare to play Marcelo Demoliner and Santiago Gonzalez.
Fourth seeds Marcelo Melo and Horia Tecau saved one set point at 5/6 in the first set tie-break of their 7-6(6), 6-2 win over Americans Nicholas Monroe and Frances Tiafoe.