Steve Johnson became the heavy favorite to win the title in Newport after Marcel Granollers demolished top seed Adrian Mannarino, joining a pair of other players outside the top 100 — plus No. 3 seed Johnson — in the semifinals on the American grass.
Johnson eased past Dudi Sela, 6-2, 6-3. The American, 48th in the world, is primed to win the title without meeting a single player inside the top 120.
That is due in big part to Granollers, who looked like the seeded player in his 6-3, 6-1 mauling of Mannarino in just 63 minutes. The veteran Spaniard won more than half of points on Mannarino’s serve, earned 12 break points and faced just two break chances of his own despite a poor 43 percent first serve percentage.
Mannarino had started strongly, depositing balls across the court and going ahead 2-0. That soon became a distant memory, however, as Granollers broke back, survived a tricky hold and used a loose Mannarino forehand to go a break up.
An agitated Frenchman got no better, spraying balls wide, long and into the net. Granollers coolly deposited a soft volley into a wide open court on his first set point, early in a stretch of seven consecutive games he went on to win.
Mannarino showed some resolve late in the second set, extinguishing two match points to avoid a 6-0 set, but Granollers whipped a cross-court forehand to confirm his first semifinal appearance since 2015.
Johnson, meanwhile, makes his fourth semifinal appearance of the year. He consistently outplayed the veteran Israeli throughout, breaking three times across the two sets — twice at love and once at 15. The error-prone Sela often knocked groundstrokes into the net and struggled to execute his net play.
The American built early leads in each set and used a strong serve — he had 11 aces to none for the diminutive Sela — to see out the win without drama. Johnson won an impressive 84 percent of points on his first serve and saved the only two break points he faced.
Tim Smyczek and Ramkumar Ramanathan won their quarterfinal matches Thursday. They will meet each other Saturday — as will Johnson and Granollers — after Michael Stich and Helena Sukova are inducted into the hall of fame.
