Dino played an excellent match, but he stumbled on the sixth match point. The Australian had his first opportunity at 5:4, and the remaining ones at 6:5, when he finally managed to close the match. Earlier, in the first set, Popyrin had a 5:3 lead, but Prižmić fought back to reach a tie-break, and in the second set, Dino came back from a 1:3 deficit. However, he couldn't complete the comeback.
"This is a big experience for me. I want to learn from this match how to play against such players. I’m a bit disappointed because I had a chance, but I showed my best tennis," said Prižmić, adding: "To get the right result in this tournament, I need to improve parts of my game. I can progress in every segment, and at this moment, I lack a bit more determination."
Arnaldi reached his first ATP semifinal with a 3:6, 6:2, 6:4 win over top seed Jiri Lehečka. "I'm definitely happy about this. I felt good from the start of the tournament, and today I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but later it got much better," said Arnaldi.
"Matteo deserved the win. I didn’t serve as well as I did against Thiem. The key moment was the first point of the second set, when I made an unforced error and after that started making poor decisions. Mistakes started piling up and I couldn’t recover," said Lehečka. In that game, he lost his serve and never won another game on his opponent's serve.
Wawrinka, on the other hand, defeated Roberto Carballes Baena in straight sets (6:4, 7:5). The Spaniard made a break in the first game, then led 3:1, but after that, he won just one more game in the set. In the second set, one break in the 12th game was decisive.
"I expected a big fight, Roberto is a great player, especially in these conditions, and overall I’m happy with my performance. It was very important that I returned the break in a long game to equalize at 3:3 in the first set," said Wawrinka.
Next, he will face Italian Sonego, who started his match against Jaume Munar in extremely poor fashion. He was down 0:5, but then made a great comeback. Although the deficit was too large to save the first set, he lost only three games in the following two.
"This is a big experience for me. I want to learn from this match how to play against such players. I’m a bit disappointed because I had a chance, but I showed my best tennis," said Prižmić, adding: "To get the right result in this tournament, I need to improve parts of my game. I can progress in every segment, and at this moment, I lack a bit more determination."
Arnaldi reached his first ATP semifinal with a 3:6, 6:2, 6:4 win over top seed Jiri Lehečka. "I'm definitely happy about this. I felt good from the start of the tournament, and today I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but later it got much better," said Arnaldi.
"Matteo deserved the win. I didn’t serve as well as I did against Thiem. The key moment was the first point of the second set, when I made an unforced error and after that started making poor decisions. Mistakes started piling up and I couldn’t recover," said Lehečka. In that game, he lost his serve and never won another game on his opponent's serve.
Wawrinka, on the other hand, defeated Roberto Carballes Baena in straight sets (6:4, 7:5). The Spaniard made a break in the first game, then led 3:1, but after that, he won just one more game in the set. In the second set, one break in the 12th game was decisive.
"I expected a big fight, Roberto is a great player, especially in these conditions, and overall I’m happy with my performance. It was very important that I returned the break in a long game to equalize at 3:3 in the first set," said Wawrinka.
Next, he will face Italian Sonego, who started his match against Jaume Munar in extremely poor fashion. He was down 0:5, but then made a great comeback. Although the deficit was too large to save the first set, he lost only three games in the following two.
