Los Cabos, Mexico, 5 August 2023 | Matt Trollope

Los Cabos, Mexico

Alex de Minaur toughed out a two-and-a-half hour battle against Dominik Koepfer to reach his third final of 2023.

The Australian also extended his winning streak in Mexico to nine matches, after eliminating Koepfer 6-2 6-7(5) 6-1 in the Los Cabos semifinals on Friday evening.

In March, De Minaur won his first career ATP 500 title in Acapulco, and his continued his love-affair with Mexico this week.

He will face either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Borna Coric in the final.

De Minaur had lost his only previous meeting with Koepfer and was facing the prospect of a second-set shut-out when Koepfer was serving with a 4-0, 40-30 lead.

Yet the Aussie did remarkably well to force a tiebreak, in which he built a 4-2 lead.

It must have stung to lose the set after working so hard to work his way back into it, but fifth seed De Minaur remained focused in the third to complete a challenging match.

He has won five of his six matches so far during this North American summer hard-court swing, and will target an eighth ATP title from his 13th career final.

Aussies in action – Los Cabos

RESULTS
Men’s singles, semifinals
[5] Alex de Minaur (AUS) d [7] Dominik Koepfer (GER) 6-2 6-7(5) 6-1

Men’s doubles, quarterfinals
Cristian Rodriguez (COL)/Diego Hidalgo (ECU) d Rinky Hijikata (AUS)/William Blumberg (USA) 7-6(5) 4-6 [10-7]

COMING UP
Men’s singles, final
[5] Alex de Minaur (AUS) v TBC

Men’s doubles, semifinals
Andrew Harris (AUS)/Dominik Koepfer (GER) v Cristian Rodriguez (COL)/Diego Hidalgo (ECU)

Washington DC, United States

It was a mixed day in the US capital for Australia’s Jordan Thompson, who advanced to his first ever ATP 500-level quarterfinal, only to return a few hours later and exit the tournament.

Due to relentless rain postponing play on Thursday, Thompson was on Friday forced to complete his third-round match against Christopher Eubanks, and play his quarterfinal against top seed Taylor Fritz.

Thompson improved his head-to-head record against Eubanks to 3-0 courtesy of a 6-2 6-2 win.

Returning to court on Friday evening, he then fell 6-3 6-3 to Fritz, who improved his winning streak to seven matches after winning last week’s Atlanta title over another Aussie, Aleksandar Vukic.

Nevertheless, Thompson is expected to rise 16 places to world No.55 in next week’s rankings, thanks to his impressive Washington DC performance.

Aussies in action – Washington DC

RESULTS
Men’s singles, third round
Jordan Thompson (AUS) d [11] Christopher Eubanks (USA) 6-2 6-2

Men’s singles, quarterfinals
[1] Taylor Fritz (USA) d Jordan Thompson (AUS) 6-3 6-3

Women’s doubles, quarterfinals
Laura Siegemund (GER)/Vera Zvonareva d [1] Ellen Perez (AUS)/Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) 6-4 3-6 [10-6]

Men’s doubles, quarterfinals
[WC] Mackenzie McDonald (USA)/Ben Shelton (USA) d Matt Ebden (AUS)/Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL) 6-4 3-6 [10-8]

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