STOCKHOLM 鈥� An all-Canadian semifinal matchup was set at the Stockholm Open after Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov won their respective matches Thursday.
Auger-Aliassime, from Montreal, reached his fifth semifinal of the season with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Botic de Zandschulp. The second-seeded Canadian鈥檚 serve was the bedrock of his victory, with Auger-Aliassime hitting 11 aces and winning 27 of 33 first-service points.
鈥淚 moved well and I mixed up the ball speeds and heights,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he court suits me well here.鈥�
Auger-Aliassime will play defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., on Friday. Shapovalov beat Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 later in the day.
Shapovalov has dropped three of five career matches at the ATP Tour level to Auger-Aliassime, his good friend and compatriot.
Also Thursday, Tommy Paul held off Andy Murray's comeback attempt to beat the former No. 1 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the semifinals.
Paul jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set but struggled with his first serve in the second, allowing the two-time Wimbledon champion back in the match.
But Murray double-faulted to hand Paul a 4-3 lead in the deciding set, missing out on a chance to reach his first semifinal since the European Open in October 2019, before undergoing hip surgery.聽
鈥淗e is a legend," Paul said of Murray. 鈥淚 played some of my best tennis today and I even looked over at my coach mid-match and thought it was fun to battle him today.鈥�
Paul will face fellow American Frances Tiafoe, who became the first player to reach the semis by rallying to beat Dan Evans 1-6, 6-1, 6-1.
That earned the eighth-seeded American a place in the semifinals for the second time in three weeks, having got to the final at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna where he lost to Alexander Zverev.
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