Hugo Gaston had to dig deep to beat Alex De Minaur 6-3 3-6 7-5 and reached the semifinals at the European Open in Antwerp.
Gaston won 85% of points at the net en route to reaching his third ATP Tour semifinal. The Frenchman leads 2-0 in his two head-to-head series after beating his Australian opponent at Roland Garros in 2022.
De Minaur reached the quarter final in his first tournament since the US Open. The Australian player is ninth in the ATP Race to Turin, 275 points behind Andrey Rublev.
In the opening set De Minaur earned an early break in the first game, but De Minaur broke straight back to draw level to 1-1. Gaston earned a second break in the fourth game to open up a 4-1 lead. The Frenchman raced back to retrieve a lob from De Minaur and hit a no-look overhead winner from behind his shoulder in the sixth game.
De Minaur earned a break in the sixth game to win the sixth game to win the second set 6-3.
Gaston saved a break point in the first game of the this set. The decider went on serve until the 10th game, when Gaston earned only his second break with a backhand winner down the line to seal the win after 2 hours and minutes.
Gaston clinched his first win in five matches against top 10 opponents.
“It was really close. Alex is such a great player, playing unbelievable tennis this year and in the past few years. When you play against Alex, you have to be ready to play a lot of rallies. I have a little bit of pain in my body, but I tied to stay focused on the game and on my shots and it was a good one today”, said Gaston.
Gaston set up a semifinal against Roberto Bautista Agut, who rallied from one set down to beat Felix Auger Aliassime 3-6 6-2 7-5. The Spanish player has reached his first semifinal since June 2023. Auger Aliassime earned his first break in the sixth game of the opening set to win the first set 6-3. Bautista Agut broke serve in the second and in the eighth games to win the second set 6-2. Bautista Agut broke serve in the eighth game of the third set to take a 5-3 lead, but Auger Aliassime broke straight back to draw level to 5-5. Bautista Agut clinched the tie-break 8-6 on his fifth match point. Jiri Lehecka cruised past Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4 6-4 in 1 hour and 24 minutes to reach the semifinal. Lehechka earned a break in the seventh game to win the opening set 6-4. The Czech player started the second set with an immediate break in the first game and held on his serve without facing any break points. Lehecka has drawn level to 2-2 in his head-to-head matches against Tsitsipas.
