Former champion Tomas Berdych is one match win away from reaching his third final at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, where he has a 19-7 record.

Fourth seed Berdych, who beat Marin Cilic for the 2014 title, knocked out defending champion Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-3 on Friday at the Rotterdam Ahoy, venue of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament.

Berdych broke twice in the first set – in the fifth and ninth games, then for a 3-1 lead in the second set in an assured 59-minute performance. He now awaits the winner of top seed Cilic or sixth seed and 2011 runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

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Third seed David Goffin takes on fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov, already a winner of two ATP World Tour titles in 2017, during the first match of Friday’s evening session. Qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert faces second seed Dominic Thiem in the final match of the day.

Dutchmen Advance To Doubles SFs
Wild cards Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop delighted Dutch supporters by beating fourth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 7-6(2), 6-3 in 87 minutes for a place in the semi-finals against 2015 titlists Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau. The Dutchmen are 3-0 in ATP World Tour finals, including a title run at last month’s Apia International Sydney (d. Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares).

Rising American star Stefan Kozlov gave a nod to Hot Shot king Dustin Brown after striking two impressive Hot Shots of his own in the same point at this week’s $75,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tempe, Arizona.

Facing Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador in the second-round, the #NextGenATP star hit a reflex shot between his legs at 1-1 in the second set. If that wasn’t enough, he responded to an overhead from Quiroz by leaping up and hitting an overhead winner of his own from the baseline, raising his arms in triumph.

“I don’t normally practise that,” joked Kozlov. “It just caught me in no-mans-land. I didn’t know whether to hit a forehand or a backhand. It was just instinct to hit it between my legs…I had a little adrenaline and got lucky when he hit the overhead right to me. It was a really tough overhead and I was pretty shocked afterwards. I haven’t had too many of those kind of points. It was exciting.”

Kozlov posted the video to his Instagram account afterwards and captioned it “On my @Dreddy_Ja game today,” referring to Brown. The American remarked that he’s “seen plenty of his Hot Shots in person and on social media, so obviously he’s really good at those. It almost seems like he does those casually now.”

Next up for Kozlov is a quarter-final battle on Friday against sixth seed Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia. 

Fourth seed Steve Johnson showed impressive resilience on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Memphis Open, rallying from a set down to defeat qualifier and fellow American Tim Smyczek, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Smyczek appeared primed for the upset in the opening set, saving all four break points against him and breaking Johnson twice to grab the early lead. But the fourth seed shifted the momentum down 3-4 in the second set, winning nine of the final 11 games to take the match.

Johnson improves FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Smyczek to 2-0 and matches his best result in Memphis, a quarter-final showing in 2015.

Next up for the American is Mikhail Kukushkin, who stormed to a 6-3, 6-0 victory over qualifier Darian King. Johnson leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-1, but they haven’t played in two years.

Alexandr Dolgopolov provided the first major upset at the Argentina Open, putting in a solid performance on Thursday to move into the quarter-finals over second seed Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 7-6(4).

A lone break of serve was all the Ukranian needed to capture the opening set. Both players traded routine service holds throughout the second set, but Dolgopolov rallied from 1/4 down in the tie-break to win the final six points and prevail in one hour and 18 minutes.

Dolgopolov improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record over Cuevas to 2-0, with his previous win over the Uruguayan coming three years ago in Buenos Aires.

Next up for him is Gerald Melzer, a 7-6(4), 6-3 winner over local qualifier Guido Andreozzi. The Austrian didn’t drop serve in moving into his first ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year.

Carlos Berlocq delighted the local crowd with a convincing 6-4 6-2 victory over third seed David Ferrer. The Argentine never lost the lead throughout the match, dominating the baseline rallies against the three-time champion to record an upset win in one hour and 26 minutes. 

Next up for Berlocq in the quarter-finals is Thiago Monteiro, who needed all of his clay-court prowess to move past former Top 5 player Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4 in the last match of the day. The lone meeting between Berlocq and Monteiro came this past May on the ATP Challenger Tour, with Monteiro prevailing in the final of the $100,000 event in Aix-en-Provence, France. The Brazilian is looking to reach his first-ever ATP World Tour semi-final.