American Taylor Fritz advanced to his first semifinal of the year, upsetting second-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday in Lyon, France.
The top four seeds all made the quarterfinals of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, but only two of them moved on.
Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili, the No. 1 seed, posted a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, reversing a result from the 2017 Lyon semifinals.
Fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada topped the United States’ Steve Johnson 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, but third-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada lost 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) to France’s Benoit Paire.
Fritz, a 21-year-old California native ranked 46th in the world, is still looking for his first career ATP Tour title. He hit 16 aces against Bautista Agut without a double fault.
Fritz will oppose Paire in the semifinals while Auger-Aliassime will square off with Basilashvili.
Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva
Top-seeded German Alexander Zverev saved a set point in the first set, then went on to pull out a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dellien served for the opening set at 5-3 and was up 40-30 before Zverev began a rally that saw him take that game and the next three. Zverev wound up winning the match in 2 hours, 24 minutes.
Next up for Zverev is Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, who defeated Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 (5), 7-5.
The other semifinal will feature fifth-seeded Radu Albot of Moldova, who beat Bosnian qualifier Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 7-5, and Nicolas Jarry of Chile, who eliminated Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-1, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
