PARMA, October 9, 2020
Frances Tiafoe from the United States leads the semi-finals line-up at the Internazionali Di Tennis Emilia Romagna. The top seed of the €132,280 ATP Challenger clay-court event in Parma, Italy, defeated home favourite Filippo Baldi 7-6(3), 7-5 on Friday afternoon.
Tiafoe won 52 per cent of the total points played and converted two of his five break-point chances to secure victory in one hour and 48 minutes.
Big Foe. Big forehand. 🔥🔥@FTiafoe punches his ticket to the Parma semis.
🎥 @meftennisevents pic.twitter.com/q86wl29lVK
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) October 9, 2020
World No. 67 Tiafoe will next meet Federico Delbonis. The No. 4 seed from Argentina rallied from a set down to overcome Italian wild card entry Marco Cecchinato 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour and 33 minutes.
Caruso fights past Djere
Salvatore Caruso is the last Italian standing in the singles draw. The No. 5 seed from Avola knocked out third favourite Laslo Djere of Serbia 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Caruso withstood six aces and broke his opponent’s serve six times to prevail after exactly two hours of play.
“The match was very tough, Djere is a great tennis player and he has shown it over the years,” Caruso told Italian website Sportface.it. “It was a swing of emotions, I’m really happy to have brought it home. I want to continue like this. Finally there are spectators in the stands and we can hear some friendly voices cheering us on from the stands. I hope they will continue to support me.”
In Saturday’s doubles final, Ariel Behar from Uruguay and Gonzalo Escorbar of Ecuador will take on Marcelo Arevalo from El Salvador and Tomislav Brkic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
