Felix fires into Montpellier SFs, joins Sinner & Alcaraz in elite group

Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his assured start to the 2025 season on Friday at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.

The second seed at the indoor hard-court ATP 250 defeated Buyunchaokete 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semi-finals for a second consecutive year. By advancing to the last four in Montpellier, Auger-Aliassime joins Jannik Sinner (33) and Carlos Alcaraz (31) as the only players born since 2000 to reach 30 tour-level semi-finals. The 24-year-old, who won his sixth ATP Tour title at the Adelaide International earlier this month, improves to 8-2 in 2025.

“My game is more disciplined,” said Auger-Aliassime when asked about his new approach to the 2025 campaign. “I feel like last year I had some brilliant shots but also moments where I made a lot of mistakes. But now, two straight-sets wins, [I am] more solid and I am happy with that because that's the goal. Hopefully I go one more step and get to the finals on Sunday.”

Dialed in 😤@felixtennis makes it back-to-back semi-finals in Montpellier, ousting Bu 6-3 6-4 @OpenOccitanie | #openoccitanie pic.twitter.com/D9MWam2rgW

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 31, 2025

With his 51st indoor win since the start of the 2022 season, Auger-Aliassime extended his Tour lead ahead of Holger Rune (42) and Sinner (40). The former World No. 6 was imperious on serve throughout his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Buyunchaokete, during which he won 86 per cent (30/35) points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and fired 11 aces. 

Auger-Aliassime will next face Jesper de Jong, who stunned countryman and fifth seed Tallon Griekspoor 7-6(5), 6-4 after one hour, 46 minutes to reach his maiden tour-level semi-final.

“We know each other well, it's never easy… but I was very hungry to play him,” said De Jong, the No. 131 in the PIF ATP Rankings. “He is No. 1 in the Netherlands, the pressure is on him. I had nothing to lose so I was ready and looking forward to it.”

Competing in his first ATP Tour quarter-final, De Jong showed few signs of nerves. The 24-year-old saved each of the six break points he faced in the first set before producing a stunning backhand pass at 3/3 in the tie-break to move clear. In the second set, an out-of-sorts Griekspoor was unable to limit his unforced error count, which ultimately rose to 30.

On the other side of the draw, Andrey Rublev advanced to the semi-finals after Nikoloz Basilashvili was forced to retire with the top seed leading 5-2 in the first set. With his second win of the 2025 season, the 27-year-old advanced to his 42nd ATP Tour semi-final, and first since reaching the ATP Masters 1000 Montreal final in August last year.

“I played many great matches with Niko, he won many of them and I won some of them as well,” said Rublev, who now leads their Lexus ATP Head2Head series 4-3. “He’s a really great player and a really nice person, so I hope that it’s nothing serious and that he will recover for the next week.”

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Nikoloz 🙏

Rublev advances to the semis as Basilashvili is forced to retire due to injury..@OpenOccitanie | #openoccitanie pic.twitter.com/ZJdLLldBPU

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 31, 2025

With a title run in Montpellier, Rublev would become the fourth man to win his first 17 tour-level titles all at different events in ATP Tour history (since 1990) after Medvedev (20), Stich (18) and Ivanisevic (17).

Rublev will next face American qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic, who upset two-time champion Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-2. Kovacevic, 26, won 84 per cent of his first-serve points and fended off all eight break points he faced. The former University of Illinois standout is into his second tour-level semi-final and first since 2022 Seoul. Kovacevic is up to No. 83 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.