MARSEILLE: Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin took down No. 1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 6-4, Friday in the quarter-finals of the Open 13 Provence in Marseille, France.
It was Safiullin's first time playing an ATP Tour quarter-final and his first time facing Tsitsipas, the fourth-ranked player in the world. Tsitsipas saved five break points in the first game of the second set and saved four more in the third game, but Safiullin finally broke his serve to go up 2-1 and never trailed again.
In the semi-finals, Safiullin will face Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime. The No. 3 seed was a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Belarusian No. 5 seed Ilya Ivashka in the quarters. Auger-Aliassime won his first career ATP title last week in the Netherlands, beating Tsitsipas in the final.
Second-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia needed three sets to dispatch French wild card Lucas Pouille 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. He will advance to face another Frenchman, No. 9 seed Benjamin Bonzi, who upset Russian fourth seed Aslan Karatsev 6-1, 6-3. Agencies
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