Australian No. 1 Alex De Minaur secured a spot in the NextGen semifinals on Thursday as he defeated Norwegian Casper Ruud with a comfortable 4-1, 4-0, 4-2.
De Minaur produced a solid performance to clinch his seventh win in Milan, and distanced Andrey Rublev‘s previous record of six.
“I knew from playing Casper before that he’d dictate any short ball without a purpose,” De Minaur said.
“The game plan was to play on my own terms, play aggressively, play different styles of tennis. The goal I had was [to take] any half-chance, go up and back myself at the net.
“I’m glad it worked out today. I’m looking forward to the semifinals.”
Elsewhere, Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic took down Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, while America’s Frances Tiafoe eased past Swede Mikael Ymer to complete the semifinals lineup.
Kecmanovic prevailed in 58 minutes by easily winning the first two sets, then battling on a tie-break in the last set to finish 4-1, 4-1, 4-3(6).
Second seed Tiafoe earned his first trip to the semifinals in Milan by beating the opponent in straight sets 4-2, 4-2, 4-2.
On the last game of the night, Italy’s Jannik Sinner, who had already advanced to the semifinals, suffered his first defeat of the tournament, giving up 4-3(5), 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-2 against Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
18-year old Sinner will face Kecmanovic in the semifinals, with De Minaur taking on Tiafoe.
Matches at the ATP NextGen finals are played on a best of five sets, first to four games in each set basis.