Former world number one Andy Murray reached his first semi-final since the 2017 French Open with a battling three-set win over Romania’s Marius Copil in Antwerp on Friday.

The 32-year-old British star, steadily rebuilding his career after major hip surgery earlier this year, defeated qualifier Copil 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4.

“I feel OK, it’s more how you pull up the following day,” said Murray, who is two wins away from a first title since Dubai in March 2017.

“The good thing about the indoor matches is that the points are fairly short so it doesn’t take as much out of you as on some of the slower courts outside.

“I haven’t played loads of matches the past few years, so when you get to the end of the match, it’s always difficult to serve it out,” Murray said.

“I played a bad game at 5-3 in the second set and after that I think he gained a lot of confidence. He served extremely well.

“He was being a lot more aggressive at the end of the second set and in the third, but thankfully I managed to get the break right at the end. It was a tough one to get through,” he added.”

Murray, now ranked a lowly 243 in the world, had the chance to wrap up the quarter-final when he had a match point in the second set tiebreak.

He eventually sealed victory after more than two and a half hours on court with an ace for his third win in three meetings against the 92nd-ranked Copil.

Murray goes on to face France’s world number 70 Ugo Humbert who put out Argentine fifth seed Guido Pella 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Italian teenager Jannik Sinner became the youngest ATP semi-finalist in five years when he defeated Frances Tiafoe of the United States 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Sinner, 18, is the youngest to make the last four on tour since 17-year-old Borna Coric at Basel in 2014. The teenager fired 10 aces past the 53rd-ranked Tiafoe, saving four of five break points as he backed up his defeat of French top seed Gael Monfils in the second round.

Sinner, who was ranked 778 this time last year, can make the world top 100 next week.

However, he faces a daunting semi-final against three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka after the former world number three got past fellow 34-year-old Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2 in his quarter-final.

Meanwhile, Belinda Bencic is on the verge of claiming the last spot at the season-ending WTA Finals after winning her Kremlin Cup quarter-final on Friday.

Bencic saved two set points in the opening-set tiebreak in beating Kirsten Flipkens 7-6 (8), 6-1.

The Swiss player’s hope of reaching the tour finals had earlier been given a boost when fellow contender Kiki Bertens was beaten 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 by Kristina Mladenovic.

If Bencic beats Mladenovic in the semi-finals she will secure the eighth and final place ahead of Serena Williams at the Oct. 27-Nov. 3 tournament in Shenzhen, China.

Bertens now needs at least one player to withdraw to play in the tour finals.

In the other semi-final, Karolina Muchova bids to reach her third final of the year when she plays Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after both won in straight sets.

In the men’s draw, third-seeded Marin Cilic ousted Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2) to set up a semifinal meeting with Andrei Rublev, who swept past Nikola Milojevic 6-2, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Adrian Mannarino, last year’s runner-up, upset fourth-seeded Dusan Lajovic 7-6 (3), 6-1 and will face 2012 Kremlin Cup champion Andreas Seppi in the other semi-final.

Agencies