SPANIARD Alejandro Davidovich Fokina caused the upset of the tournament in Delray Beach, defeating top seed and favourite Taylor Fritz in two tiebreakers to reach the semi-finals. The eighth seed won the tiebreakers 7-4 7-5 respectively to close out the match in two hours and nine minutes.

In an evenly fought contest, Fritz actually had the higher dominance ratio of 1.02, though Davidovich Fokina served at a high clip of 77 per cent, and winning two thirds of his points off that first serve. Both players broke the other three times, with Fritz having five more opportunities to do so during the ATP250 event quarter final.

There was no much between the two, with Fritz’s 13 aces helping him to 27 winners, though Davidovich Fokina still hit 25 from only two aces. The Spaniard stood up in the pressure points to close out eight of 11, and hit eight winners to Fritz’s two at the net.

Incredibly, Davidovich Fokina leads the head-to-head with Fritz 3-1, having found the way to topple the American on most occasions. Next up is fourth seed Matteo Arnaldi following the Italian’s straight sets victory over Brandon Nakashima, 7-6 6-4. In the other quarter finals, Serbian seventh seed Miomir Kecmanovic advanced to face the last United States representative remaining Alex Michelsen.

There was an even bigger upset in Buenos Aires, with local hope Francisco Cerundolo advancing to the last four with a three-set win over world number two and top seed, Alexander Zverev. Cerundolo won 3-6 6-3 6-2 to book his semi-final against Spaniard Pedro Martinez who had a walkover against third seed Lorenzo Musetti. In the remaining two quarter finals, Serbian qualifier Laslo Djere continued his run with a victory over Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild and will now take on another Brazilian in Joao Fonseca.

In Marseille, it was a bad day for the Germans with both Jan-Lennard Struff and Daniel Altmaier bowing out. The players that beat them – top seed Daniil Medvedev and Serbian Hamad Medjedovic – set up a semi-final against each other, while French second seed Ugo Humbert takes on Belgian Zizou Bergs in the other semi-final.

BUENOS AIRES – ATP250

QUARTER FINALS:

[5] Francisco Cerundolo (ARG) defeated [1] Alexander Zverev (GER) 3-6 6-3 6-2
Pedro Martinez (ESP) defeated [3] Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) W/O
Joao Fonseca (BRA) defeated Mariano Navone (ARG) 3-6 6-4 7-5
[Q] Laslo Djere (SRB) defeated Thiago Seyboth Wild (BRA) 7-6 6-3

DELRAY BEACH – ATP250

QUARTER FINALS:

[8] Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) defeated [1] Taylor Fritz (USA) 7-6 7-6
[3] Alex Michelsen (USA) defeated Cameron Norrie (GBR) 7-6 7-5
[4] Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) defeated [6] Brandon Nakashima (USA) 7-6 6-4
[7] Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB) defeated [5] Marcos Giron (USA) 2-6 6-4 6-2

MARSEILLE – ATP250

QUARTER FINALS:

[1] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 6-3 6-2
[2] Ugo Humbert (FRA) defeated [7] Lorenzo Sonego (ITA) 6-4 6-4
Hamad Medjedovic (SRB) defeated Daniel Altmaier (GER) 7-5 6-7 6-4
Zizou Bergs (BEL) defeated Zhizhen Zhang (CHN) 7-5 RET