MADRID: Up-and-coming Belgian Alexander Blockx ended the title defence of Casper Ruud by defeating the former world number two 6-4, 6-4 to reach the Madrid Open semifinals on Thursday.
Blockx, 21, who broke into the top 100 for the first time last month and is at a career-high 69 in the world, has knocked out four consecutive seeds, including third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, en route to the final four.
Blockx is through to his first tour-level semifinal and is the first Belgian man in tournament history to make it this far at the Madrid Open.
Prior to this month, he had never played a tour-level match on clay. He now enters the semifinals with a 10-2 mark on the red dirt through qualifying and main draw matches at ATP level.
"To be honest, I don't know, I'm just happy being here. Even winning my first match here, I barely escaped in the first round," said Blockx in his on-court interview.
"I was happy about that already, but semifinals is something I wouldn't have even dreamed of to begin with. I'm proud with how I'm playing the last couple of matches."
Blockx drew first blood, breaking in game three en route to a 3-1 lead.
Norwegian Ruud began dictating with his forehand and closed the gap to level for 4-4 but Blockx was unfazed and struck again to regain his advantage and he secured the set on his fourth opportunity after 51 minutes of play.
Blockx made his move in the seventh game of set number two to carve a 5-3 opening and after squandering two match points on Ruud's serve, he closed it out on his own serve to secure the win in 96 minutes.
Ruud committed 17 unforced forehand errors during the match and will drop out of the top 20 when the new rankings are released next week.
On Wednesday, Jannik Sinner ended the inspired run of teen home favourite Rafael Jodar with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/0) victory to complete his set of semifinals reached at all nine Masters 1000 tournaments.
The 19-year-old Jodar has taken the tour by storm this clay season, winning a maiden ATP title in Marrakesh, and making the semifinals in Barcelona and the quarterfinals in Madrid before he was stopped by the world number one at the Caja Magica.
This time last year, Jodar was playing college tennis for the University of Virginia and was ranked 687 in the world. He will crack the top 35 when the new rankings are released on Monday.
Sinner was seriously tested before he extended his current winning streak to 21 consecutive matches.
"He pushed me to the limit," said Sinner, who later warned about putting too much pressure on Jodar.
"At the end of the day, the player has to make the step forward, and then we see. But what he's doing, it's incredible. I wish him only the best.
"But in the same time, don't push him too much. Because sometimes it's getting into your head and it's very tough to get out.
"He's a very, very good kid, he has a great family behind him. The father seems very, very humble. He has a small bubble, which is great for him. I think he's going to make some incredible results in the future."
The world number one will next face recent Barcelona champion Arthur Fils in Friday's semifinal after the Frenchman skipped past Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 to improve to 9-0 on clay this season.
KOSTYUK ON A ROLL
In WTA action, Marta Kostyuk posted her 10th consecutive victory, on the back of her title run in Rouen, 7-6, 6-0 (7/1) over 13th seed Linda Noskova to punch her ticket to a semifinal meeting with lucky loser Anastasia Potapova.
The Ukrainian 26th seed created 23 break point opportunities on Noskova's serve, and broke the Czech seven times en route to her second 1000-level semifinal and first in Madrid.
Potapova reached the first WTA 1000 semifinal of her career with a hard-fought 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 performance against former world number one Karolina Pliskova.
The world number 56 knocked out Grand Slam champions Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko in the previous two rounds and is making the most of her lucky loser opportunity, which gave her a spot in the main draw after she lost in the second round of qualifying eight days ago to Sinja Kraus.
Having recently switched allegiance from Russia to Austria, Potapova is the first player representing Austria to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal, and the first lucky loser to make it this far at a tournament of this level. — AFP
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