Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain defeated second-seeded Daniel Evans of Great Britain in three sets in the semifinals of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco on Saturday.
Carballes Baena, who is ranked 82nd in the world, rallied for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory in just over 2 1/2 hours.
Carballes Baena lost the final four games of the first set, but turned things around in the second set. Trailing 4-3, he won three straight games to even the match on his second set point, and then broke Evans twice to win the third set going away.
In Sunday’s final, Carballes Baena — who has one ATP tourney win, the Ecuador Open in February 2018 — will take on Alexandre Muller. The Frenchman defeated Pavel Kotov of Russia 7-6 (3), 7-5. Muller has yet to win on the ATP Tour.
Muller saved 5 of 8 break points while converting 4 of 5 against Kotov.
Millennium Estoril Open
Top-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway survived a challenge from unseeded Quentin Halys of France in their three-set semifinal match in Estoril, Portugal.
Ruud, who is ranked fifth in the world, won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) despite Halys posting 16 aces to his own three. Ruud broke Halys’ serve in the first game of the match, and it was the only break of the first set.
Both players held serve throughout the third set until the tiebreaker, when Ruud went up 3-0 by breaking Halys twice. Ruud won one of the next two points on his serve to go up 4-1. Halys held serve to pull within 4-2, but Ruud broke his serve again and served out the match.
In Sunday’s final, Ruud will face six-seeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, who had an easier time of it in his semifinal, defeating Italian Marco Cecchinato 6-3, 6-1. Kecmanovic has won once on tour, while Ruud has won nine titles.
U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship
Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands defeated fifth-seeded American J.J. Wolf in straight sets in the quarterfinals in Houston.
Also advancing to the semifinals were top-seeded Frances Tiafoe of the U.S., eighth-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina and German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.
After eight Round of 16 matches were completed in the morning due to several days of rain-induced postponements, the quarterfinals were played later in the day.
Brouwer, who disposed of fourth-seeded John Isner of the U.S. 6-4, 7-6 (4) earlier in the day, beat Wolf 6-3, 6-4.
Tiafoe started his day by beating countryman Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-4. In his second match of the day, he ousted sixth-seeded Jason Kubler of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
Etcheverry defeated Australian Max Purcell 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the Round of 16, and then survived the quarterfinals by beating Cristian Garin of Chile 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3.
Hanfmann eliminated the second seed, Tommy Paul of the U.S. 7-6 (6), 6-2 earlier in the day, and then routed fellow qualifier Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1.
–Field Level Media
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