No. 2 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia won a marathon first-set tiebreaker and advanced past Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (12), 6-2 in the semifinals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Friday in Doha.
Khachanov will face Jakub Mensik in the final after the Czech native beat Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Khachanov won the first four points of his first-set tiebreaker but let Popyrin right back in it, leading to a 6-5 deficit. The Russian saved the first of three set points he faced in the tiebreaker, but he did not finish the job until his fifth set point at 13-12.
Despite Popyrin having a 35-23 advantage in winners, Khachanov had just four unforced errors to Popyrin’s 14 and won 55.6 percent of the total points (79 of 142).
Mensik, who upset top-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia in the previous round, saved nine of 12 break points against Monfils. Mensik is ranked No. 116 in the world.
Mifel Tennis Open
Eighth-seeded Jordan Thompson of Australia is one win away from his first career ATP Tour title after upsetting top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) in the semifinals at Los Cabos, Mexico.
Thompson has been to two previous tournament finals, both at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, in 2019 and 2023. He needed seven match points to get past Zverev, five on the German’s serve at 5-6 in the third set and the other two in the decisive tiebreaker.
Thompson’s title-match opponent will be fourth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway, with ousted second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the first semifinal. Ruud is chasing his 11th championship on tour, most recently having prevailed at Estoril, Portugal, last year.
Rio Open
Two Argentine players beat Brazilian opponents and a third Argentine player joined them in earning quarterfinal wins in Rio de Janeiro.
Fifth-seeded Sebastian Baez got past Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 and qualifier Mariano Navone got past Joao Fonseca in the two Argentina-Brazil matchups. Fonseca, 17, had never won a match on the ATP Tour before winning twice in Rio this week.
Baez’s semifinal opponent will be countryman Francisco Cerundolo, the fourth seed, who rallied past Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Navone’s semifinal foe will be second-seeded Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, who moved on with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Brazil’s Thiago Seyboth Wild.
–Field Level Media
