Second seed Felix Auger Aliassime beat Buyunchaokete 6-3 6-4 to reach the semifinals for the second consecutive year at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.
Auger Aliassime joins Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz as the only players born since 2000 to reach 30 ATP Tour semifinals.
Auger Aliassime, who won his first title of the season in Adelaide, has improved his seasonal record to 8-2.
Auger Aliassime hit 11 aces won 86% of his first serve points and never faced a break point. The Canadian player hit 19 winners to his rival’s 12 and committed 15 unforced errors.
Auger Aliassime earned a break point in the fourth game when Bu netted a forehand. The Canadian player broke serve, when Bu sent a backhand long.
Auger Aliassime dropped just two points after earning the break and cruised through his next service games to win the first set 6-3.
Auger Aliassime earned two break points in the first game of the second set and another break point in the fifth game, but Bu hit some spectacular shots, including a backhand passing shot to save them.
Bu sprayed a forehand wide at 3-3 to face another break point in the second set. Auger Aliassime drew an error with a drop shot to earn a break. The Canadian player never gave Bu a chance to get back on serve. Auger Aliassime hit four consecutive unreturnable serves to secure his spot in the semifinals.
“My game is disciplined. I feel like last year I had some brilliant shots but also moments where I made a lot of mistakes. But now, two straight sets wins. I am more solid and I am happy with that because that’s the goal. Hopefully I go one more step and get to the finals on Sunday”, said Auger Aliassime.
Auger Aliassime set up a semifinal clash against Dutchman Jesper De Jong, who beat his compatriot Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 after 1 hour and 46 minutes to reach his first ATP Tour semifinal.
De Jong saved each of the six break points in the first set before hitting a backhand pass at 3-3 to clinch the tie-break 7-5. De Jong converted his third break point in the ninth game and served out the win on his second match point. Griekspoor made 30 unforced errors.
Andrey Rublev advanced to the semifinals after Nikolos Basilashvili was forced to retire as the top seed was leading 5-2. Rublev leads 4-3 in his head-to-head matches against Basilashvili.
“I played many great matches with Niko. He won many of them and I won some of them as well. He is a great player and a really nice person, so I hope that it’s nothing serious and that he will recover for the next week”, said Rublev.
Rublev set up a semifinal clash against Alexandera Kovacevic, who beat two-time Montpellier champion Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-2. Kovacevic won 84% of his first serve points and saved all eight break points he faced. Kovacevic has reached his second semifinal and his first since Seoul 2022.
Kovacevic broke in the fourth game to win the first set 6-3 and earned two breaks in the third and fifth games to seal the second set 6-2.