After an exciting three days of round-robin play, two players have made themselves the favourites heading into knockout play at the Next Gen ATP Finals. But anything could happen in the semi-finals, with four players attempting to earn their spot in Saturday’s final.

Hyeon Chung and Borna Coric, who both who won their respective groups with a 3-0 round-robin record, will look to continue their excellent form as their group’s second-place finishers, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev, push for an upset.

The South Korean and Croatian both won nine of 12 sets and almost the same amount of games (Coric-43, Chung-41). Both players won five-set matches on Thursday to close out group play.

Fourth-seeded Coric won Group B and will play the top seed, Andrey Rublev, in the first match on Friday.

The duo are two of the seven first-time champions on the ATP World Tour this season. The 20-year-old Coric, who turns 21 next Tuesday, captured his first ATP title in Marrakech in April (d. Kohlschreiber). This is his first semi-final since then. On Thursday, already having clinched a spot in the final four, Coric rallied from two sets down to beat No. 2 seed Karen Khachanov, 3-4(3), 2-4, 4-2, 4-0, 4-2.

Rublev lifted his first ATP World Tour trophy in Umag in July (d. Lorenzi) as a lucky loser. The 20-year-old Russian beat third-seeded Denis Shapovalov 4-1, 3-4(8), 4-3(2), 0-4, 4-3(3) in a two-hour, two-minute battle to advance to his second ATP World Tour semi-final in 2017.

The sixth-seeded Chung won Group A and will face Medvedev for the first time.

Chung attempts to advance to his first ATP World Tour final, while Medvedev tries to reach his second — in the opening week of the season, the 21-year-old Russian was a finalist in Chennai (l. to Bautista Agut).

Medvedev finished 2-1 in Group B as he came back from a set down to defeat fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0 on Thursday. Both players have cracked the Top 50 in the Emirates ATP Rankings this season with Medvedev reaching a career-high No. 48 on 24 July and Chung No. 44 on 11 September. Medvedev has won seven of 12 sets this week.

Borna Coric came back from two sets down to clinch his status as Group B champion on Thursday night and finalize the semi-finals for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

The fourth-seeded Coric knocked out second seed Karen Khachanov of Russia 4-3(3), 4-2, 2-4, 0-4, 4-2 in a match that finished just before midnight in Italy.

Joining Coric from Group B will be Russian Daniil Medvedev, who needed and received help from Coric.

Representing Group A in the last four will be champion Hyeon Chung of South Korea and Russian Andrey Rublev, who beat Canadian Denis Shapovalov in an elimination match earlier Thursday evening.

The Friday semi-finals will be as follows: 7 p.m. Coric v. top seed Rublev, and not before 9 p.m., sixth seed Chung v. seventh seed Medvedev.

“It does feel great,” Coric said after his comeback win. “I just need to get some rest and I need to focus on tomorrow.”

The 21-year-old finished the round-robin stage with a perfect 3-0 record, joining Chung as unbeaten champions. Coric will now look to win his second ATP World Tour title (Marrakech). It will be the first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting between Coric, No. 48 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, and World No. 37 Rublev.

Khachanov had a narrow path to the semi-finals. The #NextGenATP regular season win leader (25) needed to beat Coric in three or four sets. Win in five or lose, and the Russian would be headed home.

But for two sets, it looked as if Khachanov was going to fit into the semi-finals. The 6’6” right-hander won 80 per cent of his service points in the first set (16/20) and in the second, he erased the only break point he faced.

No player had come back from two sets down yet in this inaugural tournament, but Coric has had an answer for everything so far. The fourth seed had beaten Medvedev in four sets and Jared Donaldson in three, and he turned it around just in time against Khachanov.

“I did change my tactic a little bit. I just went for a little bit more. I stepped into the court. I was going for my shots,” Coric said. “I did take my chances and when I won that third set, his level dropped a little bit, and mine raised.”

Coric has now won 24 matches on the year. One more win, and he’ll have an even 25-25 record on the season, and a spot in the title match of the Next Gen ATP Finals.

It appeared that fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson was ready to play spoiler on the final day of round-robin play at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals.

But Russian Daniil Medvedev, after overcoming a strong start by the American and his dominating forehand, kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals, defeating Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0.

“It was a very tough match. Jared had nothing to lose at all, played amazing the first couple of sets. I managed to halt this, it was very tough,” Medvedev said. “I’m happy with my win and I hope to be through to the semis.”

The Russian will now have to watch the evening match between fellow group members Borna Coric (2-0) and Karen Khachanov (1-1). Depending on the result and scoreline of that battle, Medvedev could advance to Friday’s semi-finals. His easiest path there would be for Coric to defeat Khachanov, regardless of the score.

If Khachanov wins, but needs five sets to do so, Medvedev will sneak in as the second semi-finalist from Group B. Since Medvedev took more than three sets to beat Donaldson, Coric has officially qualified for the semi-finals.

“It’s going to be tough. I’m going to watch the match and unfortunately today I think I will support Borna,” Medvedev joked, as he is good friends with Khachanov. “I’m a very calm person in life but when it’s something about winning or sports, I’m crazy… I’m sure I’m going to get crazy tonight in front of the TV.”

For a while, it looked like he might be out of luck, as Donaldson was impressive in the early going. The American dictated play consistently throughout the first set with his forehand, and seemed to be playing more freely compared to his first two matches this week. He saved the sole break point he faced in the first set before cruising in the ensuing tie-break.

However, Medvedev steadied the ship with a break in the third game of the second set. From there, he began to force more errors from Donaldson and was able to avoid being completely on the back foot.

The Russian had a blip in the third set, as Donaldson played a strong game to even affairs after falling behind an early break. But Medvedev stormed to a 5/0 lead in the tie-break and never looked back, putting himself in a position to possibly advance to the last four.

It appeared that fifth-seeded Jared Donaldson was ready to play spoiler on the final day of round-robin play at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals.

But Russian Daniil Medvedev, after overcoming a strong start by the American and his dominating forehand, kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals, defeating Donaldson 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-3(1), 4-0.

“It was a very tough match. Jared had nothing to lose at all, played amazing the first couple of sets. I managed to halt this, it was very tough,” Medvedev said. “I’m happy with my win and I hope to be through to the semis.”

The Russian will now have to watch the evening match between fellow group members Borna Coric (2-0) and Karen Khachanov (1-1). Depending on the result and scoreline of that battle, Medvedev could advance to Friday’s semi-finals. His easiest path there would be for Coric to defeat Khachanov, regardless of the score.

If Khachanov wins, but needs five sets to do so, Medvedev will sneak in as the second semi-finalist from Group B. Since Medvedev took more than three sets to beat Donaldson, Coric has officially qualified for the semi-finals.

“It’s going to be tough. I’m going to watch the match and unfortunately today I think I will support Borna,” Medvedev joked, as he is good friends with Khachanov. “I’m a very calm person in life but when it’s something about winning or sports, I’m crazy… I’m sure I’m going to get crazy tonight in front of the TV.”

For a while, it looked like he might be out of luck, as Donaldson was impressive in the early going. The American dictated play consistently throughout the first set with his forehand, and seemed to be playing more freely compared to his first two matches this week. He saved the sole break point he faced in the first set before cruising in the ensuing tie-break.

However, Medvedev steadied the ship with a break in the third game of the second set. From there, he began to force more errors from Donaldson and was able to avoid being completely on the back foot.

The Russian had a blip in the third set, as Donaldson played a strong game to even affairs after falling behind an early break. But Medvedev stormed to a 5/0 lead in the tie-break and never looked back, putting himself in a position to possibly advance to the last four.