Elsewhere, Wesley Koolhof and Kevin Krawietz advanced to the BMW Open final in Munich.
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Corentin Moutet stunned top seed Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and six minutes to move into the quarter-finals at the Millennium Estoril Open. “It was a very close match,” Moutet said on-court. “Today I’m lucky that I won at the end. A few points decided the winner.” Notably, the Canadian and Frenchman released their rap song together last year, following Shapovalov’s first single ‘Night Train’.
Earlier, both the players traded a set each as the unpredictable match went into the deciding set. Moutet broke to begin the third set, but Shapovalov recovered to gain a 3-1 lead. However, the French player fought back impressively to win the set and the match eventually.
“It was who will play less worst today,” the World No. 73 said. “I think he didn’t play his best level. I’m really happy to win, of course, because he’s such a great player.”
The victory marks Moutet’s second Top 20 win of the year after he defeated Grigor Dimitrov in his semifinal run at the Murray River Open.
Meanwhile, Cameron Norrie edged past wild card Pedro Martinez 4-6, 7-6(1), 7-5 to enter into his fourth quarterfinal of 2021. He will next face second seed Cristian Garin, who did not take the court on Thursday after Richard Gasquet withdrew with a left adductor injury.
Raven Klaasen and Ben McLachlan reached their second semi-final of the year on Thursday in Estoril with a hard-fought victory. The second seeds defeated Nicholas Monroe and Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-7(4), 10-6 in the exhilarating quarterfinal clash.
Klaasen and McLachlan have set their sights to capture their second tour-level team trophy this week. They will next face Hugo Nys and Tim Puetz for a place in the final. Nys and Puetz defeated Marcelo Demoliner and Santiago Gonzalez 7-6(3), 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the last-4.
Wesley Koolhof and Kevin Krawietz registered their second straight-sets victory of the week at the BMW Open in Munich on Thursday. The Dutch-German pair needed only 66 minutes to ease past Matthew Ebden and John-Patrick Smith 6-4, 6-3 on Centre Court.
After their quarterfinal win, Koolhof and Krawietz did not have to take the court as they were handed a place in the championship match. It was due to the withdrawal of Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer. Hanfmann had to pull out of both singles and doubles competitions due to a neck injury.
The Dutch-German pair will player either third seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen or German wild cards Dustin Brown and Peter Gojowczyk for the trophy. Brown and Gojowczyk had earlier entered the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win against second seeds John Peers and Luke Saville.
