Next Gen ATP Finals: Luca van Assche surges into semi-final showdown with Joao Fonseca in Jeddah

Luca van Assche has secured a spot in the semi-finals of the Next Gen ATP Finals on Friday in Jeddah after a four set win over Nishesh Basavareddy.

With both players starting the week with a 1-1 record, the match was a dead heat for the semi-finals with the Frenchman coming out on top. He came from a set down to seal the win which was claimed 3-4, 4-3, 4-2, 4-2.

He now moves into the final four. It is the second consecutive year that the Frenchman has made it into the semi-finals of the event. He will need to beat Joao Fonseca though who has been incredible thus far.

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The Brazilian who is seen as a real future star of the sport has lived up to his billing this week. He has won his first two matches and like Alex Michelsen who is also through, it is virtually a match for pride.

Fils and Tien are facing off as of time of writing for the final spot with the latter currently two sets up they will face Michelsen for whoever comes through. Michelsen had to play minimally today, he played one set and two games.

Juncheng Shang decided to retire. The Chinese ace had not won a match all week and was already out anyway. While Fonseca will face Mensik in the final game of today later on. The latter stage line-up will be complete after Tien v Fils and at the moment, it is the top seed heading out.

As has been the theme this week, it is really the names that were less expected to prevail that have this week and we could yet see an interesting winner out of the crop of future stars. Time will certainly tell as we reach the latter stages in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.