STARNBERG, October 30, 2020
No. 3 seed Adrian Mannarino has reached his first semi-final of the season and will lead Saturday’s line-up at the Astana Open in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The World No. 39 from France defeated US-American Mackenzie McDonald 6-1, 6-4 in the stage of the last eight on Friday.
Mannarino capitalized on four of his eight break-point chances to secure victory in one hour and 40 minutes. “I’m pretty happy with the win today. The match could have been easier, things were going all right. I served well at the end,” said Mannarino.
The 32-year-old will next take on in-form Finnish young gun Emil Ruusuvuori. The 21-year-old qualifier from Northern Europe edged past Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-1 in one hour and 21 minutes.
Tiafoe, Millman advance
Earlier in the day, Frances Tiafoe booked a place in his first ATP Tour semi-final in two-and-a-half years. The unseeded US-American, champion of the Internazionali di Tennis Emilia Romagna ATP Challenger in Parma during the clay-court season, fought past Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5 in two hours and 35 minutes.
“It’s was a very tough match. He served very well and is a good player,” said Tiafoe. “I didn’t serve well and he got many opportunities on my second serve. It wasn’t easy at all and I’m happy to get through.”
The 22-year-old from Florida will next play No. 4 seed John Millman of Australia, who saved two match points at 3-5 in the deciding set to overcome Tommy Paul from the United States 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5).
“I’m happy to get past these tight moments. It’s satisfying to get through close ones like that. It was not an ideal situation to come back from 2-5 in the third set and 0-5 in the tie-break, but one thing I’m known for is getting the fight until the end of the match,” said Millman after the match, which lasted almost three hours.
“My next target is to recover for another tough battle against Tiafoe tomorrow,” he added.
From 2-5 down in the third set AND 0-5 down in the tiebreak…(!)@johnhmillman is somehow into the @AstanaOpen semi-finals, beating Tommy Paul 6-7(5) 4-6 7-6(5) pic.twitter.com/zgL0SCGl38
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 30, 2020
