(Reuters) – American 14th seed Tommy Paul came through a marathon match to beat Polish seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz 7-5 3-6 6-3 and reach the Italian Open semi-finals on Thursday.
Paul, who defeated defending champion Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, had yet to drop a set before the quarter-final, but Hurkacz managed to force the match into the decider before the American came out on top.
It was a match which went back and forth with 13 breaks of serve overall. The pair exchanged breaks early in the opening set, with Paul breaking twice to lead 3-2. With Paul serving for the set, Hurkacz broke again to make it 5-5.
Paul broke back immediately and held serve to take the first set. The American made a strong start to the second, breaking in the first game, but Hurkacz came back, breaking twice to force a third set.
This time it was the Pole who took an early 2-0 lead, but they again exchanged breaks of serve to make it 3-3 before Paul made the decisive break to go 5-3 up, and then saved six break points to wrap up victory.
Paul awaits the winner of Thursday’s last quarter-final between Greece’s sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Chilean 21st seed Nicolas Jarry.
Another Chilean, Alejandro Tabilo is already into the other semi-final and will take on German third seed Alexander Zverev.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis)
