Top seeds Ben McLachlan of Japan and Brit Joe Salisbury, playing in their first tournament together, will play for the Shenzhen Open doubles title on Sunday.

McLachlan/Salisbury beat third seeds Roman Jebavy/Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6(4) and will meet fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt/Rajeev Ram in the final.

Lindstedt/Ram defeated Max Mirnyi/Philipp Oswald 7-6(4), 6-3. McLachlan has celebrated one ATP World Tour title (2017 Tokyo), while Salisbury will go for his first title.

In Chengdu, top seeds Ivan Dodig/Mate Pavic advanced to the final with a 5-7, 6-4, 10-8 win against Santiago Gonzalez/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Dodig/Pavic will meet Austin Krajicek/Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, who beat Guido Pella/Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-1 in Friday’s other semi-final.

Fernando Verdasco ended Andy Murray’s bid for a second Shenzhen Open crown on Friday. The Spanish veteran reached his first ATP World Tour hard-court semi-final for almost 12 months with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in one hour and 40 minutes.

Verdasco was solid on serve – dropping just five of his first-service points (27/32) and hitting 11 aces, including on match point – to beat Murray for just the third time in 16 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.

“Beating a player like Andy, it’s always a tough thing to do. You have to push yourself to the limit and you know that you have to play really, really good from the first point to the last point, because he’s always there, he’s always fighting… You really have to be focused the whole match,” Verdasco said.

The 34-year-old withstood two break points at 4-4, prior to breaking Murray’s serve in the next game. He opened up a 3-1 lead in the second set, and finished with 36 winners (14 off his forehand wing). Verdasco, who also beat Murray in the US Open second round, last reached a tour-level hard-court semi-final in October 2017 at the Intrum Stockholm Open (l. to Del Potro).

“First set I think I had quite a few chances. Didn’t take them. When he had his opportunities he played well,” Murray said. “In the second set, he deserved to win. He served well. He was very aggressive from the back of the court and didn’t make too many mistakes.”

Earlier in the day, Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka advanced to his second tour-level semi-final by beating Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 7-6(2), 6-2 in 90 minutes. Norrie lost just five of his first-service points, but won 11 of 28 points on his second serve.

Alex de Minaur is on a roll and closing in a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals in November. The fast-rising 19-year-old moved to within one victory of a place in his third ATP World Tour final on Friday.

The seventh-seeded Australian overcame fourth seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-3, 7-6(7) in one hour and 43 minutes at the Shenzhen Open for a place in the semi-finals.

The Australian led 4-0 in the second set, but Dzumhur battled back from 1/5 in the tie-break and held one set point opportunity at 5/6.

“Everything was going according to plan, I was playing great tennis,” De Minaur told ATPWorldTour.com. “Then, I relaxed a bit and my intensity wasn’t as high as before, and he started to play better tennis. I got up 5/1 in the tie-break, almost home and dry, but he is such a good competitor he fought until the end.”

Should World No. 40 De Minaur beat France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, a 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 6-4 victor over Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, he will rise to a new career-high in the ATP Rankings. He began the year at No. 208.

With a 21-17 match record in 2018, De Minaur has reached finals at the Sydney International (l. to Medvedev) and the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. (l. to A. Zverev). He is currently in fourth position in the ATP Race To Milan.

“I feel like I’m really solid out there, making a lot of balls and playing smart tennis,” said De Minaur. “I’m not making any unforced errors and I’m doing what I need to do.”

Doubles Final Set
Top seeds Ben McLachlan and Joe Salisbury will take on fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt and Rajeev Ram in the Shenzhen doubles final. McLachlan and Salisbury defeated third seed Roman Jebavy and Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6(4) in 87 minutes, while Lindstedt and Ram beat Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald 7-6(4), 6-3 in 87 minutes.

Fabio Fognini continued his pursuit of a fourth tour-level title of the season on Friday, beating Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-2 at the Chengdu Open.

The top seed, who has already lifted trophies in Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos this year, converted four of six break points to advance after 66 minutes. Competing at a career-high No. 13 in the ATP Rankings, Fognini improves to 39-18 this season. The 31-year-old is just three victories away from matching his best calendar year win total, achieved in 2013 (42-27).

Fognini will face Next Gen ATP Finals contender Taylor Fritz for a place in the championship match. Fritz notched his fifth victory in six matches at the event, beating countryman Sam Querrey 7-6(1), 7-5. Fognini, an eight-time tour-level titlist, and 21-year-old Fritz have never met at tour-level.

Did You Know?
Fognini will be competing in his seventh tour-level semi-final of the season in Chengdu (3-3). The Italian has won his past two semi-finals, en route to titles in Bastad and Los Cabos.