Six MPs Later, Koolhof/Skupski Claim SF Spot In ‘s-Hertogenbosch

Patience was a virtue for Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on Friday.

The Dutch-British duo were made to wait until their sixth match point to seal a 6-7(4), 6-2, 14-12 quarter-final victory at the Libema Open as Mackenzie McDonald and Botic van de Zandschulp showed admirable resistance at the ATP 250 event in The Netherlands.

Koolhof and Skupski had rallied strongly in the second set to level the match after dropping the opening-set tie-break. That momentum carried them to a 9/6 advantage in the Match Tie-break, but McDonald and van de Zandschulp recovered that deficit in a dramatic climax that also saw the unseeded American-Dutch pairing let slip a match point of their own at 11/10.

Second seeds Koolhof and Skupski ultimately proved too strong, however, completing a one-hour, 47-minute win to book a semi-final against Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop. Home favourites Haase and Middelkoop are chasing their second title in the Netherlands this year after lifting the trophy in Rotterdam in February.

Raven Klaasen and Marcelo Melo upset top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut to also book their spot in the final four. The South African-Brazilian pairing prevailed 7-6(6), 6-4 over the all-French duo in the Netherlands, where their semi-final opponents will be fourth seeds Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. The Australians overcame Hugo Nys and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 2-6, 6-4, 10-7.

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Hurkacz/Pavic Book Final Spot In Stuttgart

At the BOSS OPEN in Stuttgart, Hubert Hurkacz and Mate Pavic edged Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov to book a spot in the championship match at the ATP 250 event.

Hurkacz and Pavic are playing their first tournament together this week in Germany, but the fledgling partnership stayed strong to sneak a 7-6(1), 7-6(5) semi-final triumph in south-west Germany.

The narrow defeat capped a day of mixed emotions for Bopanna and Shapovalov, who had held their nerve to clinch a 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 quarter-final victory over Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi earlier on Friday.