Radu Albot booked a place in his first ATP Tour semi-final for 19 months on Friday after he beat top-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 35 minutes at the Singapore Tennis Open.
Albot, who last reached a semi-final in August 2019 at the Abierto de Tenis Mifel presentado por Cinemex in Los Cabos (l. to Fritz), led 5-1 in the second set before Mannarino staged a comeback. He’ll next play fourth-seeded Kazakhstani Alexander Bublik or fifth seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan on Saturday.
The 31-year-old Albot, who beat World No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut en route to the Australian Open third round (l. to Ruud) earlier this month, saved three match points against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany in the Singapore second round on Thursday.
Alexei Popyrin advanced to his first ATP Tour semi-final by knocking out fellow Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 7-6(7) in 85 minutes. Popyrin, who hit 14 aces, saved two set points at 4/6 in the second set tie-break and closed out on his second match point. He awaits the winner of third-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic and eighth seed Soowoo Kwon of South Korea.