MINSK, 24 September (BelTA) – Belarus' world number 52 Ilya Ivashka needed two hours and 50 minutes to defeat world number 84 Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, and progress into the Astana Open semifinal in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, BelTA has learned.
The Belarusian will next face either Australia's world number 65 James Duckworth or Australia's world number 48 John Millman.
Ilya Ivashka saw off world number 169 Elias Ymer of Sweden, 6-2, 6-4, in the opener. The Belarusian then cruised past Kazakhstan's world number 280 Timofey Skatov 6-2, 6-3.
Belarus' world number 97 Egor Gerasimov knocked out world number 53 Benoit Paire of France 7-5, 6-4 in the opener and lost to Spain's world number 117 Carlos Taberner, 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 5-7 for a spot in the quarterfinal. In the men's doubles event Belarus' Andrei Vasilevski and Jonathan Erlich of Israel defeated Brazil duo Rafael Matos and Marcelo Demoliner 6-1, 1-6, 10-7 in the round of Last 16 and solved Australia-Spain tandem Marc Polmans and Jaume Munar 6-1, 6-2 in the quartrefinal.
In the women's event in Ostrava, the Czech Republic Belarus-Kazakhstan tandem Lidziya Marozava and Anna Danilina reached the doubles quarterfinal seeing off Russia's Natela Dzalamidze and Yana Sizikova 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 10-6. Marozava and Danilina will next play India-China duo Sania Mirza and Zhang Shuai.
The tournaments in Nur-Sultan and Ostrava will be over on 26 September.
