Doha (Qatar), Feb 20 (AP) Andrey Rublev saved one match point and needed eight of his own to subdue Alex de Minaur 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8) in the Qatar Open quarterfinals on Thursday.

The long journey to the win prompted Rublev to joke about de Minaur, “I wanna punch him.”

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The Russian fifth seed wasted a 5-2 lead in the last set against the Australian second seed, who forced the tiebreaker with remarkable scrambling.

But after 2 1/2 hours, Rublev advanced to his fourth semifinals in Doha, where he won the title in 2020.

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He'll face Canada's Félix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Daniil Medvedev when the Russian retired after losing the first set 6-3.

“Unfortunately, I had food poisoning. Very disappointed to end my run here in Doha like this as I feel like I was playing well,” Medvedev said in a statement.

Auger-Aliassime said on court he thought Medvedev was “playing normal” until he retired.

“And then I broke, I held my serve. And he just told (the umpire) that he didn't want to shake our hands because he was sick. I hope it's nothing too bad. I was surprised,” the Canadian said. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)