Tsitsipas, Fils set for semifinal showdown

On Friday evening, World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece advanced to his first tour-level semifinal since winning the Los Cabos title in August after defeating No. 5 seed Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, 6-3, 6-3.

The 25-year-old Greek star converted his fourth match point to win in one hour and 10 minutes. It was the first time since Los Cabos that Tsitsipas has won consecutive singles

A sharp Tsitsipas served seven aces against no double faults and won 28 of 35 first-serve points in a clean 70-minute victory that propels him into his fifth semifinal of the season.

“I’m extremely satisfied with the level I brought today,” Tsitsipas said. “It was both a challenging and fun at times to keep it going. I was really focusing on this moment and brought great tennis with me.

“I’m proud how things escalated and how I was able to stay concentrated from the first point of the match until the end.”

Tsitsipas will also contest the Antwerp doubles semifinal alongside brother Petros Tsitsipas, following his singles semifinal vs. Arthur Fils.

The Australian Open finalist hopes his serve is firing with the same precision in the semifinals.

“You have to be ready,” Tsitsipas said. “These moments are not easy. That’s what I was referring to before: When these moments came, I really did my best and played very precise, stayed very calm and it was extremely important. Because the score could have been very different if those situations went the other way.”

The singles semifinals pits Tsitsipas against talented young Frenchman Fils.

The 19-year-old Fils won seven straight games slamming Juan Pablo Varillas 6-0, 6-3.

Fils, who raised his ATP quarterfinal record to 4-0 this season, reached his fifth career Tour-level semifinal.

Neither the fourth-seeded Fils nor Tsitsipas has dropped a set en route to their semifinal meeting, which will be the first clash between two men with massive forehands.

Behar and Pavlasek will face either Stefanos and Petros Tsitsipas of Greece or Romain Arneodo of Monaco and Tristan-Samuel Weissborn of Austria, who play Saturday evening after the completion of the single semifinals.