No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia advanced to face No. 8 Jack Draper of Great Britain in the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open after each player won his respective semifinal match Friday in Doha.
Rublev outlasted Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) in two hours and 46 minutes. Auger-Aliassime made Rublev work for his result — not only did he hit a whopping 21 aces and saved 7 of 8 break points, he saved three match points. One was in the 12th game of the third set, and two more came in the ensuing tiebreaker.
The other semifinal also went the distance, as Draper rallied past the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3. Draper hit 14 aces on his way to winning an overwhelming 45 of 51 first-serve points (88.2 percent).
Rio Open
Francisco Comesana, who entered the week with an 0-3 record on the ATP Tour this year, is headed to the semifinals at Rio de Janeiro after upsetting top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Comesana, a 24-year-old Argentine who is ranked No. 86 in the world, will be making his first appearance in an ATP Tour semifinal. His opponent will be France’s Alexandre Muller, who topped fourth-seeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 7-5, 6-1.
The other semifinal will be an all-Argentine affair. Camilo Ugo Carabelli won a quarterfinal battle of lucky losers, downing Portugal’s Jaime Faria 7-6 (5), 6-4, and fifth-seeded Sebastian Baez beat Taiwanese qualifier Chun-Hsin Tseng 6-4, 6-1.
–Field Level Media
