Bidding to claim a second title at the Terra Wortmann Open, which will guarantee him to be seeded at Wimbledon, world No. 45 Alexander Bublik delivered another eye-catching performance to knock out Czech Tomas Machac 7-6(2), 6-3 on OWL Arena on Friday.
“I served well, returned well. I’m happy that I was able to save a bit of energy,” he said courtside.
The Kazakh player, who clinched his first career victory at tour level over a world No.1 on Thursday, stunned Jannik Sinner in a three-set thriller, and now heads to his 18th career semifinal.
The four-time ATP titlist will meet eighth seed Karen Khachanov, who sailed past Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight sets to advance to his second semifinal this season after Barcelona last April.
In his on-court interview, the Moscow-born outlined: “It was a great match. I was very happy with my game. I served well and played well.”
The world No. 22 leads the 27-year-old 1-0 in their series, having played one another in 2020 on the Cincinnati hard courts.
Both rely on their powerful service, building their games from there.
The other semifinal will feature the 20th clash between second seed Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, their first on grass.
The home favorite made it through back-to-back grass-court semifinals by ousting Hamburg champion Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6(6) in one hour and 41 minutes.
He needed to overcome his opponent and physical issues, as he felt unwell during the match.
“It was very sudden,” the German commented on the incident after a challenging quarterfinal contest. “I felt completely fine before the match and then suddenly got stomach problems very quickly, threw up briefly, and then felt okay again 15 minutes later.”
Earlier, Medvedev progressed to his third semifinal this season, the first since losing to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon last year.
The third seed notched his 50th tour-level win on grass, a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over American Alex Michelsen in 85 minutes, securing his return to the Top 10 on Monday.
The former US Open champion did not drop a set en route to the last four on German soil.
The 29-year-old leads Zverev 12-7 in their series; their most recent meeting took place at the Australian Open last year.
On a further note: early in June, Bublik accomplished a career milestone by reaching his maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland-Garros, upsetting world No. 6 Jack Draper in four sets.
“Sometimes in life, there’s only one chance, and I had a feeling that that was mine, and I couldn’t let it slip,” he stressed at the time on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
The first Kazakhstani man to reach a singles major quarterfinal in history has carried momentum to the grass surface, becoming a strong contender for the title.