Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur also won their second group game at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.
The top seeded Tsitsipas has already been determined as semi-finalist after a strong performance: The world rankings-15th from Greece defeated the number three of the tournament, the US-American Frances Tiafoe, 4:3 (3), 4:3 (5), 4:2 and can therefore not be displaced by one of the first two places in the last group games on Thursday.
Tsitsipas did not even give up his serve in the whole match, the only break of the game he managed to score 2:1 in the third set. Even though he was a little too happy about the alleged match win after his service game, he remained cool afterwards. Altogether it was a balanced encounter with often smooth service games, but in the decisive moments the young Greek was a bit more confident.
The Australian Alex de Minaur is also among the last four. He won 4:1, 3:4 (5), 4:1, 4:2 against Andrey Rublev from Russia. 23 winners with only 11 unforced mistakes, according to his balance sheet – Rublev’s was not enough with 20 strokes in 20 mistakes, especially as de Minaur also shone with 81 percent points on the first serve.
On Thursday the last group games will start at 14 o’clock: Frances Tiafoe meets Jaume Munar and Andrey Rublev Liam Caruana. From 19.30 Alex de Minaur will play against Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas against Hubert Hurkacz.
Here are the groups of the Next Gen ATP Finals at a glance