Red-hot Tsitsipas books spot in semi-finals in Paris

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 7 seed, moved into the semi-finals of Paris Masters by defeating former champion Karen Khachanov, the No 16 seed, 6-3, 6-4 at the Accor Arena on Friday evening.

Tsitsipas, ranked No 6, is through to the last four without dropping a set. He will face Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov next. His victory was his 51st of 2023 and his 300th on Tour in all.

The world No 6 moved to match point with an exquisite drop shot, a sign of the confidence flowing through his body this week. “When it’s working well, I feel like I can mix up play,” he said. “It feels good to have so much variety and diversity in how I can play. “

Tsitsipas reached his third semi-final in a row thanks to a superb performance, taking all three of his break point opportunities and hitting 22 winners to just 14 unforced errors.

The Greek won against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (6-3, 7-6 (4)) and German Alexander Zverev, the No 10 seed (7-6 (2), 6-4) in the previous rounds.

Earlier in the tournament, Khachanov, ranked No 15, won against Australian Max Purcell (6-4, 6-4), Serb Laslo Djere (6-4, 7-5) and qualifier Roman Safiullin (4-6, 6-4, 6-2).

Paris Masters, other last 8 results (Accor Arena, EUR 5.779.335, most recent results first):

• Alex De Minaur vs. Andrey Rublev
• Novak Djokovic vs. Holger Rune
• Grigor Dimitrov beat Hubert Hurkacz (11): 6-1, 4-6, 6-4