Tennis: Red-hot Rublev reaches Indian Wells semi-finals

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA (AFP) - In-form seventh seed Andrey Rublev powered into the Indian Wells ATP Masters semi-finals on Friday (March 18) with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov.

The 24-year-old ranked seventh in the world notched his 13th straight match win since Valentine's Day - a hot streak that included back-to-back titles at Marseille and Dubai.

He has reached the last four without dropping a set, but the 30-year Dimitrov, ranked 35th in the world, didn't go down without a fight.

Trailing by a break in the first set Dimitrov broke Rublev to level the score at 5-5, sliding a backhand down the line past Rublev to break him at love.

But Rublev, who had been broken four times on the way to the quarters, quickly regrouped and won the next two games, closing out the set with an ace.

With a set in hand, Rublev was rolling. He won five straight games to take a 5-1 lead in the second.

Unable to capitalize on a match point against Dimitrov's serve, he fended off a break point to close it out on his own serve in the next game.

"I played really well," said Rublev, who dropped just seven points on his first serve in the match.

"Since the beginning, it was more about who would start to lead the point, who would start to dictate to play more aggressive," he said.

"Both of us would like to take our forehand and try to dictate, so it was just who's going to be the first one."

Dimitrov was unable to duplicate the semi-final run he put together here last October, when the tournament was moved from its usual March slot because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rublev could find himself facing another 2021 semi-finalist for a place in the final if American Taylor Fritz gets past Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

Fritz, a 24-year-old crowd favorite from Southern California, is the first American man in back-to-back Indian Wells quarter-finals since Andy Roddick in 2009-10.

Kecmanovic, 22, is back on the rise after a disappointing end to his 2021 campaign. He beat sixth-ranked former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini to book his place in the last eight.

The contenders for Saturday's other semi-final have already been set, with 21-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, riding a 19-0 winning streak to start 2022, to face 18-year-old fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.

Nadal defeated Australian Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (7/0), 5-7, 6-4 in a tempestuous Stadium Court tussle on Thursday, when Alcaraz beat defending champion Cameron Norrie of Britain 6-4, 6-3.