Rome, May 16 (AP) Tommy Paul has produced the biggest clay-court result of his career at the Italian Open. And, he's still going.

The American outlasted ninth-ranked Hubert Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 on Thursday to earn a spot in the semi-finals at the Foro Italico, following up from a straight-set victory over defending champion Daniil Medvedev.

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Paul broke the big-serving Hurkacz seven times but dropped his serve six times.

“My game plan coming in was I got to get in as many of his service games as possible and try and get a couple of breaks. So on that aspect, I did very, very well today,” Paul said.

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“But my next match, I'm probably going to focus on holding serve a little bit more.”

Before beating Medvedev, Paul had never defeated a top-20 player on clay. Now, he's defeated two top-10 players back-to-back for the first time in his career — on any surface.

In the semi-finals on Friday, the 16th-ranked Paul will face either Monte Carlo Masters champion Stefanos Tsitsipas or Nicolas Jarry, who were playing their quarterfinal later.

The other semi-final match will feature 2017 Rome champion Alexander Zverev against Alejandro Tabilo, who eliminated top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the third round.

Also later, the women's semi-finals featured top-ranked Iga Swiatek against US Open champion Coco Gauff and second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka against Danielle Collins.

Paul is attempting to become the first American man to reach the Rome final since Andre Agassi won the trophy in 2002. Together with Gauff and Collins, there are three American semi-finalists.

Rome is the last big warm-up tournament before the French Open starts in 10 days and Paul has never been past the second round at Roland Garros.

Paul was better on the longer rallies than Hurkacz and twice bounced back from a break down in the deciding set.

Hurkacz eliminated record 10-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal in the second round. (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)