The sixth time was the charm for Nitto ATP Finals contender Grigor Dimitrov, who took six match points to defeat veteran left-hander Mischa Zverev, 6-3, 6-4 at the Intrum Stockholm Open on Friday, moving closer to securing his spot at The O2 in London.

“Very happy with it. It’s nice to get through that match in straight sets,” Dimitrov said. “I knew it was not going to be easy but at the same time I thought I kept a very good intensity throughout the whole match.”

Dimitrov, still No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, now has 3,500 points, moving to within 35 points of No. 5 Marin Cilic, who is not in action this week. The 26-year-old, who is into his seventh tour-level semi-final of the season, will move into fifth place in the Race if he advances to the final.

While it took six chances to close out the victory, Dimitrov showed calm under pressure against the serve-and-volleying left-hander, hitting tough passing shots in key moments to claim the advantage that allowed him to get through.

As Zverev served at 2-3 in the first set, facing a 15/40 deficit, Dimitrov stabbed at a backhand return crosscourt, forcing the German to miss a backhand volley and concede the break. The top seed faced little trouble in closing out the set. And after the left-hander could not handle a ball that skipped off the baseline at 3-3, 30/30 in the second set, Dimitrov fought off a jamming second serve with a forehand return that Zverev volleyed into the net to gain the break advantage.

While the 2013 champion could not capitalise on his first five match points on Zverev’s serve, he served out the match, eliminating the veteran with a backhand volley.

The Bulgarian will next face sixth seed Fabio Fognini, who saved two match points to outlast third seed Jack Sock 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 7-5 in a back-and-forth two-hour, 51-minute marathon.

Fognini, who is attempting to claim his second title of the season (Gstaad, d. Hanfmann), advanced to his fifth semi-final of the year.

After breaking immediately in the third set and holding to go up 2-0, it appeared that the Italian was in control against his higher-ranked opponent. But the American took advantage of a frustrated Fognini to break back in a 14-point game to level the deciding set at 3-3.The 30-year-old faced two match points on his serve at 4-5, but was able to survive and broke in the next game as Sock failed to put a first serve in play.

He had no problem with this break of serve, closing out the match at love when Sock dumped a return into the net.

Throughout the battle, it was a matter of whether or not Fognini would be able to survive an onslaught of the American’s forehands to take control of points himself. And in the key moments, it was Fognini who found opportunities to turn defense into offense with a dazzling display of shotmaking.

Dimitrov leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Fognini 3-2, with the Italian winning their last match on home turf at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia in 2015.

Nick Kyrgios announced on Twitter Thursday that he would skip the rest of the season to help aid his recovery from injury and best prepare for the 2018 season on the ATP World Tour.

Here’s an update guys. #SeeYouIn2018 ❤️?? pic.twitter.com/oSoNsTXGCW

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 19, 2017

“Unfortunately due to the reoccurrence of my hip injury that I originally suffered at Queen’s [Club], I am shutting down my season to make sure I can rehab and prepare as best as I possibly can for the Australian summer,” Kyrgios wrote. “I have played a huge amount of tennis since coming back from my hip injury in Washington and unless I want this to escalate to an injury that requires surgery, I need to listen to my body and my team.”

Nevertheless, it was a successful season for the 22-year-old Australian, who earned his 100th tour-level win at the Western & Southern Open against Rafael Nadal. Kyrgios also triumphed four times against players ranked inside the Top 5 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, beating then-World No. 2 Novak Djokovic twice, at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel and the BNP Paribas Open.

The right-hander advanced to two ATP World Tour finals in 2017, at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (l. to Dimitrov) and the China Open in Beijing (l. to Nadal), winning 31 matches on the season.

“I will do all I can to improve for 2018 and I would like to thank all of you who supported me, reached out and sent encouragement and positive energy through 2017,” Kyrgios wrote. “Thank you, and see you in 2018.”

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut will attempt to earn their first Nitto ATP Finals trophy when they arrive at The O2 for the third time this November. The Frenchmen join Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo, defending champions Henri Kontinen/John Peers, 2015 winners Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau, Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares, four-time season finale champions Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan and Roland Garros winners Ryan Harrison/Michael Venus in the 2017 field.

Herbert and Mahut qualified for the event, to be held from 12-19 November, for the third year in a row, and are seeking their first appearance in the semi-finals.

The Frenchmen won at least two titles for the third consecutive year in 2017, with each of the victories coming at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event — the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, the Coupe Rogers in Montreal and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The duo leads the tour in Masters 1000 triumphs this season, and their three in 2017 have lifted their overall Masters 1000 trophy count to six.

Mahut became the first Frenchman to finish No. 1 in the year-end Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings last season, with Herbert right behind him at No. 2.

One spot remains up for grabs in the doubles field with one month to go until the season finale. Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram currently sit in eighth place in the Emirates ATP Race To London with 3,020 points. Marcel Granollers and Ivan Dodig are right behind them with 2,945 points in the No. 9 slot.