Khachanov Sweeps Into Marseille SFs

Karen Khachanov advanced to his first ATP World Tour semi-final for eight months on Friday when he defeated France’s Julien Benneteau, the 2010 runner-up, 6-4, 6-4 in 84 minutes at the Open 13 Provence. “It was quite a solid match,” said Khachanov. “I didn’t make many first serves in the first couple of games, getting broken in my first service game, but then I got stronger.”

The 21-year-old Russian, who struck 16 aces past Benneteau (for 35 aces overall in three matches this week), reached the Gerry Weber Open semi-finals (l. to Federer) in June 2017. The last Russian to contest the Marseille final was Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a former No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, who beat Sebastian Grosjean of France for the 2001 title.

Khachanov will next face fourth-seeded Czech and 2013 finalist Tomas Berdych, who led seventh seed Damir Dzumhur 7-6(4) when the Bosnia & Herzegovina player retired after 56 minutes of play.

Berdych has a 13-18 record in ATP World Tour finals, with his last championship match coming in May 2017 at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon (l. to Tsonga). In their only FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, Khachanov beat Berdych 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in the Roland Garros second round last year.

Two Frenchmen will compete during the night session in Marseille on Friday. Third seed and last year’s finalist Lucas Pouille, a recent titlist at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, faces eighth-seeded Serbian Filip Krajinovic and Nicolas Mahut meets qualifier Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays