Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime saved a match point and went on to beat German qualifier Dustin Brown in three sets Friday to advance to the semifinals of the MercedesCup at Stuttgart, Germany.
Auger-Aliassime won 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 7-6 (2) over Brown, who upset top-seeded Alexander Zverev on Thursday.
The 18-year-old Auger-Aliassime fired 30 aces and survived a match point down 5-4 in the third set when Brown sent a high forehand volley wide. Auger-Aliassime then earned his first service break of the match and later took control of the tiebreaker by winning the first five points.
No. 7 seed Auger-Aliassime will play countryman Milos Raonic in a semifinal. The sixth-seeded Raonic defeated Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-4.
Also advancing to the semifinals were Italian Matteo Berrettini, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Denis Kudla, and German Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-4, 6-4.
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Second-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia battled back from a 5-2 deficit in the third set to slip past Cristian Garin of Chile 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (6) to reach the semifinals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Coric served an ace to fight off a match point at 6-5 in the final set.
He advances to play Adrian Mannarino of France, who rallied to knock out fifth-seeded David Goffin of Belgium 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Jordan Thompson beat fellow Australian Alex de Minaur to reach his first ATP semifinal with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the No. 3 seed. He will play Frenchman Richard Gasquet, the eighth-seed and defending champion who won two matches Friday.
He completed a delayed match over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3 before returning to the court six hours later and eliminating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (8), 6-4.
–Field Level Media