ALEX de Minaur and John Millman have both lost out in the quarter finals at the 2020 ATP Sofia Open, losing for the second time against their respective opponents, Jannik Sinner and Vasek Pospisil. The third and sixth seeds losing meant only fifth seed Adrian Mannarino remained in the draw at the Bulgarian event, in what has really thrown up a number of surprise results to close out the year.

Third seed de Minaur lost to Sinner at the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals last year, going down in the final, and once against it was Sinner who had to fight back from a set down and a tough second set to win eight of the nine games to celebrate a 6-7 6-4 6-1 win in two hours and 11 minutes. Sinner was dominant off his serve, winning 80 per cent of his first serve points from a 61 per cent clip, and serving both four aces and double faults. The Australian was solid, winning 67 per cent of his first serve points, but faded in the last set, broken three times to end the year in a disappointing fashion.

“The key [in the big moments] is the balance on court, trying to understand how big I should go,” Sinner said post-match. “The important points, when you serve, try to serve with the first serve in and maybe then it is a little bit easier to win the point. “I was just focusing on that and trying to let him play in one corner, because he moves very fast… My tactic was to stay in one corner and try and play a little bit faster than him.”

The 19-year-old will now face Mannarino in the next round with Sinner favoured to go all the way in Sofia and claim his maiden ATP Tour title. Mannarino did not have it easy against Moldovan Radu Albot who took out top seed Denis Shapovalov in his last match, but the Frenchman fought through to win 6-2 1-6 6-3 in just over two hours on court. Producing seven aces which is good for the Frenchman, Mannarino won 72 and 52 per cent of his points off his first and second serve, and broke three times to two during the match, all of which came in the first and third sets, whilst Albot’s came in the second set.

Pospisil had a much easier time against sixth seed Millman, winning 6-3 6-2 in 73 minutes to book his spot in the semi-finals. Serving five aces and only dropping four points off his first serve, Pospisil was hard to contain. He broke the Australian four times to one during the match and doubled up on his win at the 2019 Davis Cup Finals last year where he also won in straight sets representing Canada. That marked the start of his return to the court from injury and he has built an impressive 12-9 record which is could be 17-9 if Pospisil can go all the way and claim a remarkable first-ever title at 30 years of age. For Millman, it was disappointing after claiming his maiden title two tournaments back, but he ends the year comfortable knowing he can head into the Australian summer fit and ready to go.

In the final match of the day, Richard Gasquet secured his semi-finals spot with a straight sets win over Italian Salvatore Caruso. Gasquet won 7-6 7-5 in a tight encounter that lasted an hour and 55 minutes with the Frenchman winning the first set tiebreaker 7-4 and then breaking a crucial second time to once in the second set to win. He served at 81 per cent success off his first serve, had 11 aces and only dropped 17 points from the serve in total, while Caruso held in there well with eight aces and only the 22 points dropped off his serve, though a poor 49 per cent efficiency to Gasquet’s 69 per cent.

Picture: Liubomir Asenov