Auger-Aliassime into his 3rd semifinal of year after ill Medvedev retires from match

Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the semifinals of the Qatar Open tennis tournament after Russia's Daniil Medvedev retired from their quarterfinal with an illness.

Auger-Aliassime won the first set of Thursday's match 6-3 before Medvedev, who was seeded fourth at the ATP 500 tournament, left the court.

The 24-year-old Canadian won 89 per cent of his service points and had four aces in a dominant first set on which he didn't face break point.

Auger-Ailassime went up 4-3 in the set with a break, and won on return again in the deciding game.

"I felt he was playing normal, but I don't know. I don't know how he feels," Auger-Aliassime said in his on-court interview. "But on my part, it felt very normal. And then I broke, I held my serve. And he just told [chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani] that he didn't want to shake our hands because he was sick.

"I hope it's nothing too bad. But of course, I was surprised."

Medvedev said in a statement he withdrew due to food poisoning.

"Very disappointed to end my run here in Doha like this as I feel like I was playing well," he said.

Auger-Aliassime advanced to a semifinal Friday against Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev despite winning just one complete match in Doha.

He survived a tough first-round match against French qualifier Quentin Halys, then advanced to the quarterfinals when second-round opponent Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia withdrew with a leg injury he sustained in a first-round upset of sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

"It's a weird week so far because normally you win three matches to get to this part," Auger-Aliassime said. "I got through the first round, different conditions than the past weeks. And then after that, I played a set only when I should have won at least four. I don't know what to say, it's weird."

Auger-Aliassime had a similar path to the final of last year's Madrid Open, where he advanced with two mid-match retirements and a walkover before losing to Rublev in the championship match.

Auger-Aliassime improved to 2-7 against Medvedev and will also be in tough against Rublev, who holds a 5-1 advantage in their head-to-head series.

Auger-Aliassime, who came into the tournament ranked 23rd in the world, is seeking his eighth ATP title and third this year.

Rublev saved one match point and needed eight of his own to subdue Alex de Minaur 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8) in their quarterfinal.

The tortuous journey to the win prompted Rublev to joke about de Minaur, "I wanna punch him."

The Russian fifth seed wasted a 5-2 lead in the last set against the Australian second seed, who forced the tiebreak with remarkable scrambling.

But after 2 1/2 hours, Rublev was through to his fourth semifinals in Doha, where he won the title in 2020.

Top-seeded Alcaraz upended

Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz lost for just the second time this year on Thursday when 25th-ranked Jiri Lehecka beat him 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Alcaraz's only other defeat in 2025 was to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open quarterfinals. The 21-year-old Spaniard, ranked No. 3, won the Rotterdam Open earlier this month.

The 23-year-old Lehecka, who is from the Czech Republic, will next face either eighth-seeded Jack Draper or Matteo Berrettini.

"The match was up and down since the beginning," Lehecka said after beating Alcaraz. "So for me to win a match like that against a player like this is a super big achievement. I believed in myself. I knew that I had the level to produce that kind of tennis.

"I didn't back down," he continued. "I wanted to push him to his limits. The way I trusted my game was the key today."

Swiatek beaten in another upset

No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek lost to a player younger than 18 for the first time on tour when she was stunned by Mirra Andreeva in the Dubai Championships quarterfinals on Thursday.

The 17-year-old Andreeva won 6-3, 6-3 to become the youngest semifinalist in Dubai's 24-year history.

Swiatek took their only previous match last August in Cincinnati, losing the first set and winning 7-5 in the third. She conceded the first again and was a break up in the second, but Andreeva reeled off the last five games.

"I was nervous before the match," No. 14-ranked Andreeva said. "I told myself I played great in our last match and I just need to keep playing aggressive."

It's her fifth win over a top-10 player and second over a No. 2 — she beat Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open quarterfinals last year.

The Russian teen will next face sixth-seeded Elena Rybakina or Sofia Kenin.

Clara Tauson, the Dane who knocked out Sabalenka on Wednesday, defeated Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (4), 6-4 to reach her third semifinals of the year. She will play Karolina Muchova, who eliminated Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 7-5.