Defending champion Casper Ruud of Norway won points on 90 percent of his first serves on his way to defeating Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4, 7-6 (3) Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Gonet Geneva Open in Switzerland.
It was the first-ever match between the second-seeded Ruud and Kokkinakis. Ruud is seeking the seventh clay-court victory of his career, most recently winning on the surface at Buenos Aires in February.
Next up in the semifinals for Ruud is fourth-seeded Reilly Opelka, who defeated Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in one hour, 33 minutes.
Also moving to the semifinals is Richard Gasquet of France, who needed just 87 minutes to top Kamil Majchrzak of Poland 6-2, 6-4.
Gasquet will meet Joao Sousa of Portugal in the other semifinal. Sousa defeated Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 7-5, 7-5 and will compete in his first tour semifinal on clay since Gstaad, Switzerland, in 2019.
Lyon Open
Top seed Cameron Norrie wasn’t at his best, but he battled back to beat No. 7 seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 and advance to the semifinals in Lyon, France, for the third time.
Norrie had a 5-3 lead and two match points, but Baez fended off the match points to move the third set to 5-4, then broke Norrie’s serve for a 5-5 score. Norrie fought back to break the serve of Baez in the next game, then serve out for the win.
In the semifinals, he’ll face Holger Rune of Denmark, who was a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner over French qualifier Manuel Guinard to reach his second semifinal of the season.
In other action, Alex Molcan of Slovakia defeated Federico Coria of Argentina 6-3, 6-2 to reach his second semifinal of the season. He’ll take on fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia, who moved on after Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki retired at the start of the second set of their match with a back issue.
–Field Level Media