Alex de Minaur has produced a remarkable turnaround to reach the semifinals of the China Open, coming back to score a three-set victory over Russian Andrey Rublev.<\/p>\n
After scraping into the quarters with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 win over French qualifier Quentin Halys, the fifth-seeded de Minaur had his supporters’ hearts in their mouths again on Sunday against world number 24 Rublev.<\/p>\n
The Australian was comprehensively outplayed in the first set, but produced a stunning comeback to win 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours exactly.<\/p>\n
De Minaur, 27, will now play a semi against world number 39 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, against whom he has a 3-1 head-to-head record.<\/p>\n
Hurkacz beat Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Rublev pounced on de Minaur at the outset of their match, breaking him in his first service game while building a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
After each player held serve, Rublev broke de Minaur again to lead 5-1, before holding to 15 for the set.<\/p>\n
As comprehensive as that opener was, however, de Minaur flicked a switch to turn the match on its head.<\/p>\n
Rublev had to save two break points in a lengthy deuce game to open the second set, but couldn’t resist as the Aussie broke him in the fourth game before holding comfortably for 4-1.<\/p>\n
A further break, from deuce, in the eighth game gave him the set.<\/p>\n
De Minaur was made to fight to open the third set, saving a break point, but broke the Russian straight away to lead 2-0.<\/p>\n
Rublev fought back immediately, breaking back to 30 then holding for 2-2, but de Minaur secured the decisive next break in the eighth game to make it 5-3 before serving out to love for the match.<\/p>\n
Third seed Daniil Medvedev had a straight-sets win over Argentina’s Francisco Cerendolo. Medvedev took the opening set in a tie-breaker, before pulling away to win the match 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in an hour and 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
The final match of the day saw top seed Alexander Zverev taking on sixth seed Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n
Zverev broke Djokovic’s serve in the opening game of the match, then saved break points in the 10th game as he took the first set 6-4 in 59 minutes.<\/p>\n
But after a quicker second set, games went with serve until Djokovic ripped a cross-court winner to take the set 6-4 and level the match.<\/p>\n
The deciding set was another close affair, before the 10th game again proved pivotal, as a Zverev miss handed the break and the match to Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 after 2 hours, 34 minutes. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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