Adrian Mannarino pushed his way into the final four, while No. 2 seed Damir Dzumhur and flashy Frenchman Gael Monfils also won quarterfinal encounters on Thursday.
Mannarino, at No. 24 in the world the top player in Turkey, had the most challenging of the victories. He needed an hour and 45 minutes to defeat sixth seed Joao Sousa 7-6, 6-4 in a match marked by long baseline rallies, rarely converted break chances and relatively little shotmaking. Mannarino saved all nine break points he faced and converted a single one of his five opportunities, giving him just enough to advance.
Nearly every game seemed to involve break points, or, at the very least, deep holes for the servers to dig out of. Still, Mannarino had the better of the play in the tiebreaker, rolling off four straight points from a 3-3 tie to put himself firmly in control.
He then broke the Portuguese player at 3-3 in the second set, setting up the match’s most pivotal game. Mannarino fell behind 15-40 immediately thereafter, but forced two Sousa forehands to sail long. He faced another break point and three more deuces, but eventually consolidated his lead in a marathon game. The Frenchman fended off more break points in the final game before the match ended fittingly with a long Sousa forehand.
That earns him a semifinal meeting with the wily Monfils, who exchanged his usual flair for exquisite serving. He impressively paired 12 aces with a 78 percent first serve percentage to lose just nine points on the first serve en route to a 7-6, 6-4 win that took a half hour less than his countryman’s. In a match light on break points, Monfils swatted away the only one he faced in the first set before winning all five service points in the tiebreak.
The No. 4 seed broke early in the second and was never challenged, dropping three total points on serve in the frame.
Dzumhur, meanwhile, reached his maiden semifinal on grass with a 6-4, 6-1 win over yet another Frenchman, Pierre-Hughes Herbert. The Bosnian saved the only break point he faced and won the first four games of the second set to extinguish any hope of a Herbert comeback. He faces another grass semifinal debutant in world No. 103 Jiri Vesely, who took out Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6, 6-2.
