#NextGenATP Set For Milan Semis

After an exciting three days of round-robin play, two players have made themselves the favourites heading into knockout play at the Next Gen ATP Finals. But anything could happen in the semi-finals, with four players attempting to earn their spot in Saturday’s final.

Hyeon Chung and Borna Coric, who both who won their respective groups with a 3-0 round-robin record, will look to continue their excellent form as their group’s second-place finishers, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev, push for an upset.

The South Korean and Croatian both won nine of 12 sets and almost the same amount of games (Coric-43, Chung-41). Both players won five-set matches on Thursday to close out group play.

Fourth-seeded Coric won Group B and will play the top seed, Andrey Rublev, in the first match on Friday.

The duo are two of the seven first-time champions on the ATP World Tour this season. The 20-year-old Coric, who turns 21 next Tuesday, captured his first ATP title in Marrakech in April (d. Kohlschreiber). This is his first semi-final since then. On Thursday, already having clinched a spot in the final four, Coric rallied from two sets down to beat No. 2 seed Karen Khachanov, 3-4(3), 2-4, 4-2, 4-0, 4-2.

Rublev lifted his first ATP World Tour trophy in Umag in July (d. Lorenzi) as a lucky loser. The 20-year-old Russian beat third-seeded Denis Shapovalov 4-1, 3-4(8), 4-3(2), 0-4, 4-3(3) in a two-hour, two-minute battle to advance to his second ATP World Tour semi-final in 2017.

The sixth-seeded Chung won Group A and will face Medvedev for the first time.

Chung attempts to advance to his first ATP World Tour final, while Medvedev tries to reach his second — in the opening week of the season, the 21-year-old Russian was a finalist in Chennai (l. to Bautista Agut).

Medvedev finished 2-1 in Group B as he came back from a set down to defeat fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0 on Thursday. Both players have cracked the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season with Medvedev reaching a career-high No. 48 on 24 July and Chung No. 44 on 11 September. Medvedev has won seven of 12 sets this week.