In a grueling contest, American 14th seed Tommy Paul triumphed over Polish seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz with a score of 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, securing his spot in the Italian Open semi-finals on Thursday.
Paul, who had previously defeated defending champion Daniil Medvedev in the earlier round, had maintained an unblemished record without dropping a set until the quarter-finals. However, Hurkacz pushed him to the limit, forcing the match into a decisive set before Paul ultimately emerged victorious.
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.
(With inputs from AFP)
