Second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continued his quest for a third ATP World Tour title of the season with a 6-0, 6-4 quarter-final victory over #NextGenATP Karen Khachanov in 64 minutes at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon. The Frenchman lost just six points on serve to improve to a 20-5 match record in 2017.
“I am really pleased that after playing two-and-a-half hours yesterday, I was feeling great today and didn’t have any pain with my shoulder. This is key for me. I need to be healthy,” said Tsonga. “Today was definitely a better match. I hope that I will keep this rhythm for the upcoming matches.”
Tsonga, a winner of two indoor trophies at Rotterdam and Marseille this year, will now face Nikoloz Basilashvili, who is one victory away from reaching his third ATP World Tour final after the Georgian knocked out Argentinean qualifier Nicolas Kicker 6-3, 6-1 in 65 minutes. Basilashvili, with a 16-10 match record on the season, finished runner-up to Ryan Harrison in the Memphis final in February.
“I’m really happy with how I performed. I’m playing much better than in the previous tournaments on clay,” said Basilashvili. “I’m looking forward to the next round and will need to play well.”
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Top seed Milos Raonic, competing for the fourth straight week on the ATP World Tour, moved into his fourth semi-final (or better) this year after he defeated qualifier Gastao Elias 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 33 minutes. Raonic has won eight of his past 11 clay-court matches, including a runner-up finish in Istanbul (l. to Cilic). The Canadian is looking to capture his first trophy since Brisbane 2016
“I hope to keep playing better and better,” said Raonic. “The main objective is to win and to be efficient on court, which I was today."
Raonic will next play third seed Tomas Berdych. who scored a convincing 6-4, 6-0 against fifth seed Gilles Simon. Berdych saved all five break points he faced and won the final seven games to advance in 76 minutes.
The Canadian leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Berdych 5-2, including a straight-sets win last week at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Rome.
“It will be another big challenge. I played Milos last week and it wasn’t a good match on my side, so I’m going to try and do better than that,” said Berdych. “I’ll need to be focused on my game, serve well and bring pressure in his return games.”
Daniell/Demoliner Reach Doubles Final
Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner will bid to capture their first ATP World Tour team title on Saturday after they knocked out Australians Nick Kyrgios and Matt Reid 6-3, 6-1 in a 47-minute semi-final encounter. Daniell and Demoliner finished as runners up at Bastad (l. to Granollers-Marrero) in July 2016 and at Sao Paulo (Dutra Silva-Sa) in March this year. They await the winners of third seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic or Andres Molteni and Adil Shamasdin.
In quarter-final action, Molteni and Shamasdin needed just 53 minutes to defeat Carlos Berlocq and Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3.