MUNICH, Germany — The top two seeds and last year’s finalists, Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton, continued their strong runs at the BMW Open by Bitpanda, both advancing to the semi-finals in Munich.
On a sunlit Friday at the MTTC Iphitos, Shelton came through a highly anticipated quarterfinal clash against João Fonseca of Brazil, battling to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in front of a packed Center Court crowd.
The No. 2 seed of the ATP 500 event struck seven aces and won 84 per cent of his first-service points to prevail after one hour and 49 minutes.
“It was a much warmer day today with shorter rallies,” said Shelton, who enjoyed his first meeting with the 19-year-old Fonseca.
“He is an electric player, one of the rising stars on the tour. It’s a big match for him and there is a lot of excitement around him. He has many fans around the world, and I was looking forward to it, as it’s the type of atmosphere I like to play in. I’d love playing against him in Brazil one day. That’d be really cool.”
