Evans Puts In Double Shift, Reaches Murray River Open Semi-finals
Eighth seed Daniel Evans put in a double shift on Friday to book a place in the Murray River Open semi-finals, where he will challenge France’s Jeremy Chardy.
Having first overcome American Marcos Giron 6-4, 7-6(5) in the third round, the 30-year-old Briton returned to edge fourth-seeded Croatian Borna Coric 7-5, 7-6(1) in two hours. Evans struck 14 aces and won 84 per cent of his first service points. He broke Coric’s serve at 5-5 in the first set, but needed to save one set point when serving at 4-5, 30/40 in the second set.
Last year, Evans reached three ATP Tour semi-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (l. to Tsitsipas), the European Open in Antwerp (l. to Humbert) and the Erste Bank Open in Vienna (l. to Sonego). Earlier in the day, Coric had ended Australian No. 13 seed Nick Kyrgios’ return tournament with a solid 6-3, 6-4 third-round victory.
[WATCH LIVE 3]Chardy, who beat sixth-seeded American Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-4 in the third round, moved into the semi-finals after top seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland withdrew due to fatigue. Former World No. 3 Wawrinka had rallied from the brink of defeat on Friday to reach the quarter-finals, defeating Australian Alex Bolt 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) after two hours and 23 minutes.