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Jason Kubler has made his first ATP tournament semi-final after beating fellow Aussie James Duckworth at the Hall of Fame Open grass-court event in Newport.
Jason Kubler's dream run just keeps bounding further into fantasy realms after the Brisbane battler won an all-Aussie scrap with James Duckworth to reach his first-ever ATP tournament semi-final in the US.
Kubler, who's enjoyed an astounding 10-week renaissance featuring spectacular runs at Wimbledon and Roland Garros to remind everyone why he was once the world No.1 junior, beat Duckworth 7-5 7-6 (7-3) in the quarters at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport on Friday.
It's earned the Queenslander a last-four date with Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik, who'd earlier beaten two-time Wimbledon champ Andy Murray 7-5 6-4 at the only ATP grass-court event to be staged outside Europe.
For Kubler, it's just another of the many career breakthrough moments which have coming flooding in since he battled through qualifying at the French Open in May and ended up as the last Aussie man standing in the singles at the clay-court grand slam.
Having already knocked out a fellow Aussie Jordan Thompson earlier in the week at Newport and saved a match point en route to defeating top seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Thursday, the world No.102 Kubler proved too good for Duckworth, who's ranked 28 places higher on the computer.
"It's a good mental victory for me today," Kubler said in his on-court interview.
"I've been putting a lot of effort into my mental side. I'm happy that I was able to stay consistent throughout the match."
Both players have had multiple injury woes during their careers, with 30-year-old Duckworth leading the surgery count 10 to six.
The Sydneysider had undergone his latest operation, to his hip, only in January and had found his comeback hard going until enjoying a run to the semi-final of a hard-court Challenger tournament in Portugal last week and a revival in this week's Rhode Island grass-court event.
But he couldn't halt the irresistible grass-court form of Kubler, who won six matches at Wimbledon, going through the qualifiers and knocking out British seed Dan Evans on the way to reaching the last-16, easily his best-ever grand slam display.
Duckworth had beaten him all four times they'd met at both Tour and Challenger level, yet Kubler's only real concern on Friday came at the start, when he got broken to 15 in the opening game.
Two breaks of his own, though, had him wrapping up the first set in 54 minutes and the second stanza followed a similar pattern, with Kubler hitting back after an early break.
Duckworth repelled a couple of match points at 5-4 down and though he also saved a third in the tiebreak, Kubler, who's now won a remarkable 25 of his last 29 matches, controlled affairs to wrap up his victory in two and a quarter hours.
Murray, who'd beaten Australia's Wimbledon doubles winner Max Purcell in the last-16, was earlier left disappointed in his hunt for a long-awaited tournament triumph on grass as he suffered defeat at the hands of the unpredictable world No.42 Bublik.
The Kazakh has never previously played Kubler, who must now be dreaming of playing in his first final, fearing no-one after his first victory over a top-10 opponent when he defeated Auger-Aliassime.
If he makes the final, he'll be up against either the mighty-serving American John Isner or his booming serve-and-volley compatriot Maxime Cressy, who meet in Saturday's other semi-final.
