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ESPN staff
Richard Gasquet booked his place in the semifinals of the Libema Open with a straight sets victory over Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The French second seed came through in consecutive tiebreaks at Hertogenbosch, winning 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) to set up a semifinal match with Bernard Tomic.
The Australian qualifier was impressive in a 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.
Jeremy Chardy is also into the quarterfinals after a he came through an exciting battle with wildcard American Mackenzie McDonald.
Frenchman Chardy won 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) to continue the fine form that saw him win the Surbiton challenger tournament last week. He has now won eight matches in a row and looks a real danger on the grass courts.
Australian Matthew Edben will be his opponent in the semifinal after overcoming Marius Copil 6-3, 6-3.
In the women’s draw top seed CoCo Vandewhege survived a scare against USA compatriot Alison Riske.
Vandewhege — who is bidding for her third title at Hertogenbosch — survived seven match points in a pulsating contest but finally edged into the semifinals with a 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (12) victory.
Elsewhere Belgium’s No.2 seed Elise Mertens and Dutch No. 3 seed Kiki Bertens both suffered surprise defeats in matches carried over from Thursday after rain ended play.
Mertens fell 7-5, 6-3 in the second round to German qualifier Antonia Lottner and Bertens bowed out with a 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1 defeat at the same stage to Kirsten Flipkens
Belgian Flipkens would later book a semifinal spot by beating Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 6-4,6-4. Her opponent will be Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova who defeated Lottner in the quarterfinals 6-3, 6-2.
Serbian Aleksandra Krunic cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova and will face Vandewhege in the semifinals.