Katie Boulter has continued on her winning ways to reach the Hong Kong Open semi-finals, lightening Alex de Minaur’s mood somewhat after he lost in the quarter-finals at the Paris Masters. De Minaur has moved into the eighth and final spot in the race to the ATP Finals after his run to the quarters in Paris.

But the Aussie star had his brilliant week ended on Friday night by Holger Rune, leaving him heartbroken after hoping to go all the way at the Masters 1000 event. Just as his hopes in the French Open had been ended at the quarter-final stage earlier in the year, de Minaur again bowed out at the same point in the French capital.

The Aussie star, who has moved up to World No.8 in the rankings, went down 4-6 6-4 5-7 after an engrossing two-hour and 25-minute slugfest with Danish youngster Rune. The Australian No.1 departs the tournament holding onto eighth place in the race to the ATP Finals in Turin, which will take place from November 10.

But there is still a danger he could be surpassed by his chasers over the next week in the final qualifying events in Belgrade and Metz. Andrey Rublev, who will be competing in Metz, is just 25 points behind de Minaur in ninth, while the 10th placed Grigor Dimitrov blew his chances of making up more ground when he lost 6-2 6-3 to Karen Khachanov in another quarter-final in Paris.

Rune (13th) is also still a chance to chase down de Minaur, but will have to regain the Paris title he won in 2022 and go on a big run in Metz next week as well. As for de Minaur’s upcoming schedule, it’s believed he’ll play in Metz as well as he looks to become the first Australia since Lleyton Hewitt 20 years ago to make the ATP Finals.

Jordan Thompson also loses in Paris Masters quarter-final

Meanwhile, Jordan Thompson’s first appearance in a Masters 1000 quarter-final also ended in disappointment as the home crowd cheered French conqueror Ugo Humbert to victory. Thompson and de Minaur became just the second Australian men’s pair in the last 20 years to get to the last-eight of the singles in the same Masters event after Alexei Popyrin and Max Purcell in Cincinnati last year.

Thompson had reached his first Masters quarter-final in 28 attempts stretching back seven years. But Humbert overcame a foot injury and stirring late rally from the Australian to power through 6-2 7-6 (7-4) and set up a semi-final showdown with Khachanov.

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Katie Boulter into Hong Kong semis amid Alex de Minaur loss

De Minaur and Thompson were left shattered not to progress any further, but the former will take some solace from the performance of his girlfriend this week. Boulter maintained her impressive form to reach the semis in Hong Kong after beating Anastasia Zakharova of Russia in straight sets.

Boulter edged a hard-fought opening set before running away with the second to win 6-4 6-0 and set u up a clash with China’s sixth seed Yue Yuan in the final four. “The first set I think I was on another planet,” Boulter said afterwards. “She was playing some good tennis. I picked up at 5-3 and played some really good stuff after that. I was free and relaxed on the court.”

with agencies