Van de Santsulp advances to Winston-Salem semifinals, warms up for US Open

Bodik van de Sandschulp warms up for the US Open at the Winston-Salem ATP tournament. Frenchman Benjamin Ponsi (ATP-50) now had to drop out after victories over compatriot Talon Kronpoor (7-6 (5), 6-3) and Spaniard Jaime Munar (6-3, 6-3). Finished in two sets (7-6. 7-6).

Adrien Mannarino (ATP-65) now awaits in the semi-finals after defeating French-American Maxime Cressy 6-4, 7-6. The hard court tournament in the United States is the final preparation for the US Open, which starts on Monday.

Van de Santsulp (ATP-23) needed two hours to tackle Ponzi in the US state of North Carolina. The men did not break each other in the first set. In the tie-break, Ponzi scraped a first set point from Van de Sandsulph, but the second number took the 26-year-old Dutch (8-6).

Set two started with a minor hiccup for van de Sandschulp. Ponzi broke and won his own service game. With a re-break at 3-3, Van de Sandsulp leveled things up and in the second tie-break of the match, the Dutchman was on top. After some strong points it was quickly 5-0 and eventually Van de Santsulp won 7-1.

At 01.00 on Saturday morning, Van de Santsulp will play Mannarino in his semi-final. If he wins, he will face Marc-Andrea Hüsler (ATP-102) or Laszlo Djere (ATP-89) in the final.