World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz struggled, but the young prodigy advanced to his first Cincinnati Masters 1000 semi-final on Friday, beating Australian Max Purcell 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Alcaraz worked hard this week to reach the semi-finals after two more wins in straight sets earlier this week against Australian Jordan Thompson and American Tommy Poole.
The Spaniard ended the duel with his sixth header of the match, moments after saving a break point that would have made it 5-5 in the final set.
Previously, Purcell, the 70th player in the world, has shown opportunism in the returner role, getting the service break on both his first and second chances.
Coming out of the qualifiers, Purcell made his way to the round of 16 by upsetting veteran Swiss Stan Wawrinka and No. 7 Casper Rudd in quick succession.
For a place in the final, Alcaraz will face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who defeated Australian Alexei Popyrin, 6-1, 7-6 (8).
The other two quarter-final matches, later on Friday, will be from facing world number two Serbian Novak Djokovic against Taylor Fritz, as well as German Alexander Zverev, former number 2 in the ATP rankings, against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
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