By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday June 18, 2021
There is something about Andrey Rublev at ATP 500 events. The Russian has won 28 of 30 matches at the 500-level, including titles at four tour stops—Hamburg, Vienna, St. Petersburg and Rotterdam—and this weekend in Halle the Russian will attempt to claim his first 500 on grass.
On Friday Rublev marched past German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber, 7-6(4), 6-2, to book a semi-final with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.
“I am happy with my performance to reach the semi-finals for the first time,” said Rublev, who cracked 29 winners against the 2011 Halle champion to improve to 32-9 on the season. “The first set was really tough. He was 3/0 up in the tie-break and I came back, which was the key. After the first set, I think he mentally went down and I was pumped up. I hit a couple of good returns in the first game of the second set.”
The seventh-ranked Russian will face Basilashvili, who defeated Lloyd Harris 6-4, 7-6(5), for the fifth time—the pair have split four previous meetings.
The top half semifinal will feature Felix Auger-Aliassime, who backed up his win over Roger Federer with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over American qualifier Marcos Giron, and Ugo Humbert, who outlasted Sebastan Korda 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime, still searching for his first ATP title, owns a 1-1 lifetime record against Humbert.