Portugal’s Nuno Borges reached his first tour-level semifinal at a grass-court event with a 7-6 (1), 6-4 defeat of No. 1 seed Italian Luciano Darderi on Thursday at the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Mallorca Championships in Mallorca, Spain.
Borges, who is through to his third ATP semifinal, pulled off the only break of the match to finish off the sweep up 5-4 in the second set. He saved all four break points on his serve, all in the second set, He had 10 aces and no double faults, winning 78.5% (51 of 65) of his service points.
He’ll face another unseeded competitor, Ethan Quinn, for a spot in the finals. Quinn rallied for a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 defeat of Czech Vit Kopriva to reach his first ATP semifinal.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain will face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan. Davidovich Fokina coasted to a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, while Marozsan bested Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic for the second time in as many weeks 6-4, 6-3.
Lexus Eastbourne Open
British lucky loser Toby Samuel continued his dream run at a local tournament, beating No. 8 seed Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semifinals in England.
Samuel, who won his first tour-level match Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals, ironically only got this spot in the tournament due to Francisco Cerundolo, the brother of the competitor he beat Thursday, withdrawing due to a hip injury. Samuel won just 64.4% (47 of 73) of his service points but saved all seven break points he faced. His Argentine competitor had as many double faults as he had aces (four) and won just 60.7% (37 of 61) of his service points.
In order to reach the final, Samuel will need to beat Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, who swept British qualifier Jan Choinski 6-3, 6-3.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 6 seed Ugo Humbert will face Great Britain’s Jack Draper. Humbert won an all-French matchup against Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4, while Draper coasted past Gabriel Diallo of Canada 6-1, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
