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Sixth seed Emil Ruusuvuori made it into the semifinals on a day that saw a mass exodus of seeds from the Maharashtra Open held at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune.
Proceedings began on Friday with second seed Lorenzo Musetti suffering an upset and the trend continued throughout the day at South Asia’s only ATP 250 event.
World No. 95 Kamil Majchrzak stormed out of the blocks against the 66th-ranked Musetti, touted as one of the brightest talents from the upcoming generation. The 19-year-old fought back to level the match after losing the first set 2-6.
The decider turned out to be a break-fest with the Pole making in-roads into the Italian's serve twice. Majchrzak picked up a 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4 win after two hours and 14 minutes.
"It was very difficult because after the first set Lorenzo changed his tactics," he said after the match. "He made me play longer rallies and he actually found his rhythm so it was difficult from almost the beginning of the second set. Maybe, I was not returning good enough to put pressure on his service games."
Majchrzak will now meet Ruusuvuori, the lone seed to survive a tumultuous Day 6 of the Maharashtra Open. The World No. 87 ended fourth seed Jiri Vesely's title defense with a commanding 6-3, 6-4 win to book his place in the last four of this tournament.
This will be the Finn's second semifinal of the season. He lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the Melbourne Summer Set 1 at the same stage last month.
Vesely conceded a couple of breaks but failed to earn any break points on Ruusuvuori's serve.
Elias Ymer continues surprise run at Maharashtra Open
Meanwhile, Elias Ymer continued his rampage through the 2022 Maharashtra Open draw.
A day after toppling top seed Aslan Karatsev, the 163rd-ranked Swedish qualifier sent eighth seed Stefano Travaglia packing, 6-4, 7-6(4). Ymer thundered 10 aces in yet another power-packed performance to reach his first ever ATP semifinal.
In the fourth quarterfinal of the day, Portuguese veteran Joao Sousa halted the progress of fifth seed Daniel Altmaier 6-2, 6-3 to set up a last-four showdown with Ymer. The 32-year-old converted three of the six break points he had on the German's serve and saved the solitary break point he faced.
This will be Sousa's 20th tour-level semifinal and first since the 2019 St. Petersburg Open.
Maharashtra Open: Day 6 Results at a glance
Singles
(Quarterfinals)
Kamil Majchrzak def. (2) Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4
(6) Emil Ruusuvuori def. (4) Jiri Vesely 6-3, 6-4
Joao Sousa def. (5) Daniel Altmaier 6-2, 6-3
(Q) Elias Ymer def. (8) Stefano Travaglia 6-4, 7-6(4).
Doubles
(Semifinals)
(1) Luke Saville/John-Patrick Smith def. N. Sriram Balaji/Vishnu Vardhan 6-2, 6-4.
