Maxime Cressy reached his second tour-level semi-final of the season Thursday, upsetting top seed Cameron Norrie 7-5, 7-5 at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne.

The American overcame Reilly Opelka and Daniel Evans in his first two matches and produced another strong display on the grass at the ATP 250 event. The 25-year-old fired 10 aces and won 80 per cent (35/44) of his first-serve points to advance after one hour and 39 minutes in his first ATP Head2Head meeting with Norrie.

“The court conditions were amazing,” Cressy said during his on-court interview. “Thank you to the crowd for making the match so special and bringing an incredible environment. It is a big win for me.”

Cressy, who is making his debut in Eastbourne, will face #NextGenATP Briton Jack Draper or British wild card Ryan Peniston in the last four. Earlier this season, the World No. 60 reached the championship match at the Melbourne Summer Set, losing to Rafael Nadal.

”It has been a tough past three months, but I have stayed resilient and I knew my time would come,” Cressy added. “My confidence is back and I am proud of myself and so happy.”

The 2019 champion Taylor Fritz continued his strong record in Eastbourne with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alexander Bublik in 67 minutes.

The third-seeded American has now won his past seven matches at the ATP 250 event and will next play Australian Alex de Minaur or countryman Tommy Paul.

To get to the title match at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares will have to go through both finalists from last week’s Cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club in London.

The British-Brazilian duo is halfway there after a 6-4, 7-5 win against London finalists Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara on Wednesday. They can now look froward to a Thursday semi-final showdown against top seeds and London champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. The Croatians defeated Maxime Cressy and Ugo Humbert 7-6(9), 6-1 to reach the last four.

The second Eastbourne semi-final will see fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek take on Matwe Middelkoop and Luke Saville after both teams also advanced on Wednesday.

Marathon Match Tie-break in Mallorca
Matthew Ebden and Philipp Oswald saved four match points to edge Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Jamie Munar 6-3, 2-6, 18-16 in Mallorca. A pair of one-sided sets preceded a neck-and-neck Match Tie-break in which neither team led by more than one point until the Aussie-Austrian duo claimed its fifth match point.

They will next face Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in the semi-finals, after the Uruguayan-Ecuadorian team defeated Germans Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies, 7-5(3), 7-6(11). 

Stefan Kozlov moved to within one victory of his Wimbledon debut with a second-round qualifying win Wednesday at Roehampton. The American, who reached the Australian Open second round in his Grand Slam debut earlier this season, defeated Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3 to set up a Thursday meeting with qualifying 23rd seed Dennis Novak of Austria.  

View Wednesday Qualifying Results

The 24-year-old Kozlov, seeded third in the qualifying draw, got past France’s Evan Furness 7-5, 6-3 on Monday. He currently sits at a career-high of No. 107 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, with his best results of the 2022 season including a quarter-final run in Delray Beach and a second-round showing in Acapulco after qualifying for both events.

Kozlov was one of four American men to advance on Wednesday, including 14th seed Jack Sock, Christian Harrison and Nicolas Moreno De Alboran. Sock, a 6-3, 7-5 winner against France’s Constant Lestienne, is seeking to return to the Wimbledon main draw for the first time since 2018.

Elias Ymer, who fell to Borna Coric in the final of the Montechiarugolo-Parma ATP Challenger Tour event last week, continued his smooth progress through qualifying with a 6-3, 6-4 result against Italy’s Riccardo Bonadio. The 26-year-old debuted in the main draw at all four Grand Slams in 2015 but has not competed in the Wimbledon main draw since. He reached the Pune semi-finals as qualifier in February .

Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber announced after his qualifying win on Monday that Wimbledon would be his last tournament as a professional. He started strongly against 32nd seed Mikhail Kukushkin in his bid to extend his stay, but fell short in a 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4 decision. The 38-year-old achieved a career-high of No. 16 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2012 and finished his career with eight ATP Tour titles.

Jack Draper’s strong grass-court form propelled him into his second career ATP Tour quarter-final — and his first of 2022 — on Wednesday at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne. The #NextGenATP Briton followed up a straight-sets victory against Jenson Brooksby with a 7-5, 7-6(3) upset of fourth seed Diego Schwartzman as he recorded multiple wins at a tour-level event for the first time this season.

Playing on home soil for the third straight event, Draper broke serve three times in the victory while saving four of six break points against him. The 20-year-old settled into the contest after dropping serve to love in the opening game. Though he failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second — again losing four straight points — he regrouped to save a break point at 5-5 and won the final five points of the tie-break to advance.

“I got a bit tight and a bit tentative. Sometimes when that happens you can come into yourself a little bit and start playing more offensively,” Draper reflected. “My coach was trying to tell me to be brave, try and impose your game on the court. At this level, guys take advantage [if you don’t do that].

“It was a really tough match with Diego. He’s a great competitor, great player and he’s at the top of the game for a reason. Very happy to come through the match.”

The Briton played aggressive tennis in front of his home fans, winning and losing points on his own terms with 30 winners and 35 unforced errors. In both sets, he found the range at the crucial late moments.

Draper advances to face either countryman and fellow wild card Ryan Peniston or Spain’s Pedro Martinez in the quarter-finals. Peniston led that match, 7-6(8), 3-6, 3-2, when it was suspended due to darkness on Wednesday evening.

“If it’s Ryan, that’s good new because it’s another Brit into the quarter-finals,” he said. “Very happy with the way he’s playing at the moment. I think it’s really good for British tennis, having another guy who’s playing playing excellent tennis. It will be a tough match if I play him, two lefties.

“If I play Martinez, that’s another player who’s a Top 50 guy. He’s a really tough competitor. It will be tough to play him. I’ve practised with him a fair bit. Either way, I look forward to whoever I’m playing.”

An all-British semi-final against top seed Cameron Norrie could also be on the cards, should both men advance.

The Sutton native broke into the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time on 13 June behind four ATP Challenger Tour titles this season. On that same day, he celebrated with an upset win against third seed Taylor Fritz at the Cinch Championships.

Draper is also fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Race To Milan, putting him in a strong position to make his debut at the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in November.