Bublik beats Auger-aliassime, meets Coric in Montpellier
Montpellier, France - Secondseeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan rallied from a set down to defeat No. 3 Felix Auger-aliassime of Canada on Saturday and will meet Borna Coric of Croatia in the finals of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.
Bublik needed more than 2 1/2 hours to dispatch AugerAliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Coric defeated top seed Holger Rune of Denmark 6-3, 4-1. Rune retired in the second set.
Davis Cup qualifiers
Canada defeated South Korea 31 to easily advance to the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.
Gabriel Diallo defeated Seongchan Hong 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to punch Canada’s ticket.
Slovakia also advanced with a 4-0 defeat of Serbia. Germany advanced 3-2 over Hungary. The Netherlands topped Switzerland 3-2 to advance. Finland swept Portugal 3-0 and Brazil beat Sweden 3-1. Chile and Peru are tied 1-1 heading into Sunday’s action. Argentina and Kazakhstan are also deadlocked at 1-1. France
has a 2-0 lead on Chinese Taipei, and the Czech Republic leads Israel 2-0. Croatia and Belgium are also tied 1-1.
Lin Zhu wins
Second seed Lin Zhu of China took another step toward defending her title at the Thailand Open by defeating Australian Arina Rodionova 6-3, 6-3 in a quarterfinal match Friday in Hua Hin. Zhu had a 5-1 edge in aces and won 22 of her 29 first-service points (76 percent) to ease into the semifinals. Her victory at last year’s tournament marked the first tour-level title of her career.
Her semifinal opponent will be unseeded countrywoman Yafan Wang, who rallied past American Katie Volynets 1-6, 63, 7-6 (4).
No. 3 seed Xinyu Wang made it a trio of Chinese players reaching the penultimate round.