Canadians Shapovalov, Raonic advance to semis in St. Petersburg
Auger-Aliassime advances to semifinals in Cologne
Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Milos Raonic have advanced to the semifinals of the St. Petersburg Open.
The second-seeded Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., downed No. 5 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 7-5 in quarterfinal action on Friday at the ATP Tour 500 indoor hard-court event.
The sixth-seeded Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., defeated fourth-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-1, 7-6 (1).
Shapovalov will face No. 3 seed Andrey Rublev in the semifinals on Saturday. The Russian crushed Great Britain's Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Shapovalov has a 2-1 edge on Rublev in their career series.
WATCH | Shapovalov advances to St. Petersburg semis:
"I think Andrey is one of the best players on the planet right now," Shapovalov said. "He was playing very well at the last couple of tournaments. I suppose tomorrow's match will be very tough.
"Sometimes our game style looks the same, we both play aggressively and we like to hit winners, so it's going to be tough but interesting."
Raonic, who won the event in 2015, will face No. 7 seed Borna Coric of Croatia in the semifinals after Coric defeated American Reilly Opelka 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Raonic won his only other meeting with Coric, defeating the Croat in the round of 16 at the 2016 Delray Beach outdoor hardcourt event in Florida.
WATCH | Raonic reaches St. Petersburg semis:
Auger-Aliassime advances to semis in Cologne
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime cruised into the semifinals of the Cologne Open tennis tournament with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Moldova's Radu Albot on Friday.
Auger-Aliassime, seeded third at the ATP 250 indoor hardcourt event, converted five of his six break point chances and won 68 per cent of his service points, compared to 42 per cent for Albot.
Albot, who also struggled when receiving with a 32-per-cent conversion rate on return points, was successful on his only break opportunity of the match.
"I struggled on the opening game on my serve, and since then everything went uphill," Auger-Aliassime said. "I was returning great, serving good and hitting my spots. As a player you know you're happy when your shots are going where you want them to go, and that's really how I felt today."
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime breezes into Cologne semis:
Auger-Aliassime will next face second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in Saturday's semifinals. Bautista Agut prevailed over 2 1/2 hours to beat Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-0.
Bautista Agut beat Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (3), 6-3 in last year's Davis Cup final in the only other meeting between the players.
