Qualifier City: Harris, Paul Reach Adelaide Semi-finals

Lloyd Harris sports a tattoo on his left forearm that reads, “Keep dreaming, keep believing no goal is unreachable.” The South African qualifier has plenty of belief at the Adelaide International, continuing his inspired run on Thursday with a 6-3, 6-3 upset over fourth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta to reach the semi-finals.

Harris, No. 91 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, racked up nine break points and converted three. He dropped just seven points on serve to prevail in 67 minutes. Harris matched his best tour-level result when he advanced to the semi-finals as a lucky loser last year in Chengdu.

Adelaide is guaranteed to have a player move into their first ATP Tour final when Harris meets fellow 22-year-old qualifier Tommy Paul. The American moved into his maiden tour-level semi-final with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory against Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Paul broke into the Top 100 last year on the back of winning three ATP Challenger Tour titles and his first ATP Masters 1000 match in Montreal.

Third seed Andrey Rublev kept up his winning ways by holding off Brit Daniel Evans 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The Russian moved to 6-0 this season after capturing his third ATP Tour title last week in Doha (d. Moutet), pushing him inside the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings for the first time.

Awaiting him in the semi-finals is second-seeded #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime or Aussie wild card Alex Bolt.

Murray/Skupski Save 1 M.P. To Advance
Jamie Murray/Neal Skupski came out on top in a wild 6-3, 1-6, 13-11 quarter-final against Jurgen Melzer/Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Murray/Skupski saved a match point at 10/11 in the Match Tie-break before prevailing in one hour and 20 minutes. Next up for the British pair are fourth seeds Ivan Dodig/Filip Polasek.

Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury encountered few problems in their 6-4, 6-3 victory against Wesley Koolhof/Nikola Mektic. They’ll take on Maximo Gonzalez/Fabrice Martin for a place in the final.