ILKLEY, June 22, 2019
The 48-man-draw has been whittled down to the final four at the €137,560 Ilkley Trophy. Dominik Koepfer knocked out Frenchman Ugo Humbert, No. 2 seed of the ATP Challenger grass-court event, winning 6-4, 6-3 on Friday.
The 25-year-old German saved all four break points he faced, capitalizing on three of his own 10 chances to advance in one hour and 13 minutes. Koepfer will next play unseeded Japanese Go Soeda, who defeated the tournament’s No. 6 Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-5, 6-4.
Dennis Novak of Austria edged past Czech veteran Lukas Rosol, rallying 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-4. The No. 9 seed struck 10 aces, winning 78 per cent of his first service points to prevail after one hour and 56 minutes.
Our last interview for the day, #DennisNovak is confident heading into tomorrow’s semi-finals following his win in the evening sunshine#IlkleyTrophy pic.twitter.com/20JjPZ0N3Y
— ILTSC (@Ilkleytennis) 21. Juni 2019
Up next for Novak will be 10th favourite Kamil Majchrzak. The 23-year-old from Poland fought past Antoine Hoang of France 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. The encounter lasted two hours and one minute.
“It was very difficult match for me, as he plays really good tennis,” Majchrzak said afterward. “I had to get used to his game and finally I did. I am happy to win this match.”
The top two seeded teams will compete in the doubles final. Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Asiam-Ul-Haq Qureshi will take on Marcus Daniell from New Zealand and Indian Leander Paes on Saturday.
