LONDON (AP) — Top seed Matteo Berrettini started and finished with aces to get past Dan Evans and into the Queen’s Club semifinals on Friday.
A day after beating five-time champion Andy Murray, Berrettini also knocked out the current British No. 1 after a nearly five-hour rain delay 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Berrettini's third career semifinal on grass will be against fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia, who defeated two-time champion Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
De Minaur, a first-time Queen's semifinalist, ended the seven-match winning run of Cilic, the winner on Stuttgart grass last weekend.
The other semifinal pits last surviving Brit Cameron Norrie against second-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada or Frances Tiafoe of the United States. Shapovalov led 6-3 when play was suspended because of darkness.
Berrettini won the last three points of the tiebreaker against Evans with nerveless serving and relentless forehands. He made the decisive break in the second set in the eighth game when Evans lost focus. He was finished off by the Italian’s 13th ace.
Norrie won his first all-English quarterfinal with 19-year-old Jack Draper, the youngest Queen’s quarterfinalist in the Open era, 6-3, 6-3.
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
