Antwerp Upsets: Gaston downs De Minaur, Lehecka sinks Tsitsipas
p a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hugo-gaston/g09o/overview'Hugo Gaston/a produced more than just a box of tricks on Friday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/antwerp/7485/overview'European Open/a in Antwerp. /p
p The Frenchman dug deep to overcome one of the ATP Tourrsquo;s most renowned battlers, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a, and reach the semi-finals at the ATP 250. Gaston did not earn a break point between the fourth game of the opening set and the final game of the match, but he found a late charge on return to seal a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory. /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"First Top 10 win! ????br /
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Gaston fights past de Minaur 6-3 3-3 7-5 to reach the SF in Antwerp!a href="https://twitter.com/EuroTennisOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@EuroTennisOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EuropeanOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#EuropeanOpen/a a href="https://t.co/aOYdwgyUxO"pic.twitter.com/aOYdwgyUxO/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1847328053891842549?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 18, 2024/a/blockquote
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p ldquo;It was really close. Alex is such a great player, playing unbelievable tennis this year and in the past few years,rdquo; said Gaston after notching his first win in five attempts against an opponent from the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings. ldquo;When you play against Alex, you have to be ready to play a lot of rallies. I have a little bit of pain in my body, but I tried to stay focused on the game and on my shots, and it was a good one today.rdquo; /p
p Although his ability to go toe-to-toe with De Minaur in extended rallies was the key to his quarter-final win, Gaston nonetheless found time to sprinkle some of his trademark creative magic on Fridayrsquo;s encounter. The best example of that came in the sixth game of the match, when he produced an outrageous no-look overhead from behind the baseline. /p
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p Gaston won 85 per cent (17/20) of points at the net against De Minaur, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to reaching his third ATP Tour semi-final. He now leads the Australian 2-0 in the pairrsquo;s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, after he also prevailed in the pair's clash at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a in 2022. /p
p Standing in Gastonrsquo;s way of a spot in his third tour-level championship match will be a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roberto-bautista-agut/bd06/overview'Roberto Bautista Agut/a. The Spaniard earlier upset third seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/felix-auger-aliassime/ag37/overview'Felix Auger-Aliassime/a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final since June 2023. /p
p Quarter-final defeat in his first tournament since the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a was a blow to De Minaurrsquo;s hopes of qualifying for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a for the first time. The 25-year-old is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 275 points behind eighth-placed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a. /p
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pAfter de Minaurrsquo;s exit, second seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefanos-tsitsipas/te51/overview'Stefanos Tsitsipas/a was stunned by a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jiri-lehecka/l0bv/overview'Jiri Lehecka/a, who cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 win against the Greek on Friday./p
pPlaying his 14th tour-level quarter-final, Lehecka hit 19 winners, including eight aces. He did not face a break point in the one-hour 24-minute match. The Czech broke Tsitsipas to go up 4-3 in the first set, claimed an immediate break in the second set, and did not relinquish his lead from there on./p
pWith a second win over Tsitsipas this year, Lehecka leveled the pairrsquo;s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 2-2. The loss was a setback to the 26-year-oldrsquo;s hopes of qualifying for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a. He is currently 11th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin./p
pThe fifth-seeded Lehecka will play a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marcos-giron/gc88/overview'Marcos Giron/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/zizou-bergs/bu13/overview'Zizou Bergs/a in his sixth tour-level semi-final on Saturday./p
p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p