De Minaur comeback earns Beijing semi-final spot
Australia's Alex de Minaur is into the last four at the China Open after rallying from a set down to beat Russia's Andrey Rublev 1-6 6-2 6-3 in exactly two hours on court.
De Minaur will meet Hubert Hurkacz in the semi-finals after he beat Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 in his quarter-final.
No.5 seed De Minaur has equalled his semi-final run in Beijing from a year ago, and better still rose four spots to ninth in the ATP rankings, one place outside the race for the lucrative end-of-year ATP Finals in Turin.
De Minaur looked anything but a winner in the first set as he was comprehensively outplayed by his Russian counterpart, who broke the Australian in his first service game and didn't relent throughout the first stanza.
But De Minaur was a different player thereafter, putting Rublev's serve under immediate pressure in the second set, eventually breaking it in the fourth game before holding his own service to lead 4-1.
He would break again to take the set, and had taken all the momentum away from Rublev as they entered the decider.
Again De Minaur got the early break to lead 2-0, but Rublev broke back immediately and held to level up again at 2-2 as both players looked to grab the initiative.
It was De Minaur that eventually edged ahead in the eighth game again, breaking to lead 5-3 and giving himself an opportunity to serve out for the match, one he didn't pass up.
