Third seed, Arjun Kadhe of India survived a three-set battle with Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4) to advance to the semifinals, where he will play 2nd seed, Sadio Doumbia.
Neither Kadhe nor Lock had lost a service game coming into the match, but it was Lock who gave in first, as Kadhe broke in the fourth game of the opening set for a 3-1 lead, and then powered through to take the set. But the Zimbabwean would bounce back in the second set, carving out an all-important break in the eight game to go 5-3 up and consolidating with a comfortable hold to level the match and force what turned out to be a gripping final set.
Kadhe would find the breakthrough against the sixth seed in the eight game of the final set to take a 5-3 lead, but his nerves betrayed him while serving for the match. Lock broke back and stepped in to level matters, before both men guided the set to a tiebreaker. The 393rd-ranked Indian would show the greater consistency, keeping his nerves in check and holding firm to clinch the tiebreaker and seal victory in 2 hours and 24 minutes.
Benjamin Lock (L) walks up to Arjun Kadhe after their quarter-final encounter.
Elsewhere, Sadio Doumbia of France ousted Swedish teenager, Simon Yitbarek, 7-6(3), 6-3 in an hour and 39 minutes to reach the semifinals- his first of the 2019 season.
Doumbia and Yitbarek kept things with serve to drive the first set into a tiebreaker, which the former sealed with minimum fuss. In the second set, Yitbarek carved out an early break in the third game to go 2-1 up and then consolidated with a hold to open up a 3-1 lead. But the 18-year-old switched off after then, as Doumbia took full advantage, winning five games on the trot to prevail.
On Court 1, Jaimee Floyd Angele joined his compatriot, Doumbia, in the semifinals. The young Frenchman powered down 11 aces to clinch a 6-3, 6-4 victory, taking his totally tally of aces fired so far in this tournament to 39!
19-year-old Angele poses with his coach, Philip Robin after his quarter-final victory.
It will now be an all-French affair in one of the semifinals, with Angele taking on Dan Added, who defeated American qualifier, William Bushamuka 7-6, 6-4.
In the doubles event, the French pair of Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul defeated the Ukrainian-Dutch duo of Danylo Kalenichenko and Niels Lootsma 6-1, 6-4 to reach the final, where they will face the Zimbabwean duo of Benjamin Lock and John Lock—both brothers—who rallied from a set down to beat Michail Pervolarakis and Dan Added 6-7, 7-5, 10-1.
