No. 1 seed Ben Shelton dropped the first set against No. 7 seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina before rain halted play Thursday in the ASB Classic quarterfinals in Auckland, New Zealand.
Baez broke Shelton’s serve three times and held a 7-5, 0-1 lead when the action was suspended. The winner meets Marcos Giron in the semifinals.
Giron won the only completed match of the day, converting five of 10 break points and rallying for a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 defeat of fourth-seeded Luciano Darderi of Italy in two hours and 36 minutes.
Adelaide International
No. 1 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina defeated No. 5 Valentin Vacherot of Monaco 7-6 (4), 6-2 to advance to the semifinals in Australia.
The Spaniard weathered 15 aces by Vacherot and only faced one break point to set up a clash with Ugo Humbert. The unseeded Frenchman tallied 32 winners and just seven unforced errors in his 6-0, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko in 57 minutes.
Second-seeded Tommy Paul and No. 8 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic will meet in the other semifinal after winning in straight sets. Paul beat Australia’s Aleksander Vukic 6-3, 6-2 and Machac ousted Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-4, 6-4.
–Field Level Media
