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Antwerp
Antwerp Upsets: Gaston downs De Minaur, Lehecka sinks Tsitsipas
French lefty claims first Top 10 win
October 18, 2024
Jasper Jacobs/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images
Hugo Gaston defeats Alex de Minaur on Friday at the European Open in Antwerp.
By ATP Staff
Hugo Gaston produced more than just a box of tricks on Friday at the European Open in Antwerp.
The Frenchman dug deep to overcome one of the ATP Tour’s most renowned battlers, Alex de Minaur, and reach the semi-finals at the ATP 250. Gaston did not earn a break point between the fourth game of the opening set and the final game of the match, but he found a late charge on return to seal a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory.
First Top 10 win! 👏
Gaston fights past de Minaur 6-3 3-3 7-5 to reach the SF in Antwerp!@EuroTennisOpen | #EuropeanOpen pic.twitter.com/aOYdwgyUxO
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 18, 2024
“It was really close. Alex is such a great player, playing unbelievable tennis this year and in the past few years,” said Gaston after notching his first win in five attempts against an opponent from the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings. “When you play against Alex, you have to be ready to play a lot of rallies. I have a little bit of pain in my body, but I tried to stay focused on the game and on my shots, and it was a good one today.”
Although his ability to go toe-to-toe with De Minaur in extended rallies was the key to his quarter-final win, Gaston nonetheless found time to sprinkle some of his trademark creative magic on Friday’s encounter. The best example of that came in the sixth game of the match, when he produced an outrageous no-look overhead from behind the baseline.
Gaston won 85 per cent (17/20) of points at the net against De Minaur, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to reaching his third ATP Tour semi-final. He now leads the Australian 2-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, after he also prevailed in the pair’s clash at Roland Garros in 2022.
Standing in Gaston’s way of a spot in his third tour-level championship match will be Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard earlier upset third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final since June 2023.
Quarter-final defeat in his first tournament since the US Open was a blow to De Minaur’s hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The 25-year-old is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 275 points behind eighth-placed Andrey Rublev.
After de Minaur’s exit, second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was stunned by Jiri Lehecka, who cruised to a 6-4, 6-4 win against the Greek on Friday.
Playing his 14th tour-level quarter-final, Lehecka hit 19 winners, including eight aces. He did not face a break point in the one-hour 24-minute match. The Czech broke Tsitsipas to go up 4-3 in the first set, claimed an immediate break in the second set, and did not relinquish his lead from there on.
With a second win over Tsitsipas this year, Lehecka leveled the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 2-2. The loss was a setback to the 26-year-old’s hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals. He is currently 11th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
The fifth-seeded Lehecka will play Marcos Giron or Zizou Bergs in his sixth tour-level semi-final on Saturday.