Kitzbuhel | Hanfmann and rain upset Thiem

Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann stunned former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem 6-4 3-6 6-4 to reach the semi-finals at the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel, Austria as he attempts to repeat his success of 2020 when he reached the final of the event only to fall at the last hurdle.

Thiem was trailing 5-4 in the third set when play was suspended because of rain, and the 2020 U.S. Open champion failed to hold his serve when play resumed.

For the 30-year-old Hanfmann it will be only his fourth quarter final on the Tour and to progress further, he will have to defeat the winner of the Dusan Lajovic and Filip Misolic match which had to be suspended until Friday because of the rain.

Meanwhile the third-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut came from a set down beat the Czech Jiri Lehecka 4-6 7-5 7-5 after two-hours and 56-minutes of very competitive play to reach the last eight where he will play his countryman and fifth-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas who eliminated another Spaniard, seventh-seeded Pedro Martinez, 6-4 6-2.

Bautista Agut converted six break points form 13 chances while Lehecka took five from nine.

But it was in the 12th game of the deciding set the Spaniard crucially struck converting his third match point of the game on the Lehecka serve to complete a hard-earned win.

In contrast in an all-Spanish clash, Ramos-Vinolas broke Martinez’s serve four times in a comfortable one-hour and 49-minute win to make successive Tour semi-finals following his run in Gstaad last week. The 34-year-old is chasing his second title of 2022 in Kitzbühel, where he reached the final in 2019.