By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday February 18, 2022
Russia's Roman Safiullin earned his first Top-10 win and reached his first ATP semifinal on Friday at Marseille.
Photo Source: TTV
Russia’s Roman Safiullin is having a career week in Marseille. The 24-year-old powered past top-seed and two-time Open 13 defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas to move into his first ATP semifinal on Friday at Marseille, 6-4, 6-4.
It was a command performance from the World No.163, who saved the only break point he faced and dropped just four of 35 first-serve points against the fourth-ranked Greek.
The former junior World No.2 improves to 5-3 on the season and will face either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Ilya Ivashka in the semifinals.
Safiullin caught the eye of the tennis world in January when he won two of his four singles matches at ATP Cup, and also went 3-1 in doubles with partner Daniil Medvedev. Clearly, it was a big week for his confidence, and that belief paid dividends on Friday as he didn’t blink when he closed out his victory over Tsitsipas.
The lower half semifinal in Marseille will feature another first-time semifinalist – France’s Benjamin Bonzi, who topped Aslan Karatsev 6-1, 6-3 on Friday to set up a clash with No.2-seeded Andrey Rublev.
Rublev rallied past Lucas Pouille in quarterfinal action on Friday, earning a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 triumph.