By Tennis Now | Friday, October 30, 2020
John Millman saved two match points then rallied from 0-5 down in the decisive tiebreaker surging through seven straight points to stun Tommy Paul 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5).
Photo credit: Kazakhstan Tennis Federation Facebook
John Millman knows all about tiebreak heartbreak.
Today, the fourth-seeded Aussie delivered tiebreak tenacity.
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Millman saved two match points then rallied from 0-5 down in the decisive tiebreaker surging through seven straight points to stun Tommy Paul 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5) and battled into the Astana Open semifinals in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Down 3-5 in the decisive set, Millman fought off two match points to break Paul for the sixth time.
Contesting his third semifinal of the season, the seventh-seeded American shot out to 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker, but a stubborn Millman refused to lose answering with a seven-point tear.
The 31-year-old Millman reached his first ATP semifinal since last October when he played through qualifying then toppled Reilly Opelka to reach the Tokyo final bowing to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
At the Australian Open in January the Brisbane baseliner was two points away from toppling Roger Federer for the second time in a Grand Slam. Then Federer unleashed the gladiator within streaking through six straight points in subduing Millman 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8) in an epic Melbourne thriller that spanned four hours, three minutes.
Today's comeback victory vaults Millman into a rematch with American Frances Tiafoe.
The 22-year-old Tiafoe withstood 14 aces from Egor Gerasimov beating the Belarusian 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5 in a two hour, 35-minute test.
Tiafoe won eight of the last 11 points breaking in the final game to reach his first ATP final four since the Estoril Open in May of 2018.
In their most recent meeting, Tiafoe rallied from two sets to one down defeating Millman in five sets at the US Open. Overall, Millman has won two of three Tour-level meetings vs. Tiafoe with all three matches going the distance.
Empowered by his first ATP quarterfinal of the season at Cologne-2 last week, Adrian Mannarino swept American Mackenzie McDonald 6-1, 6-4.
The third-seeded Frenchman will face qualifier Emil Ruusuvuori who beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-1 in today's final quarterfinal.