David Goffin kept up his remarkable form as he beat fourth-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Swiss Indoors.
It was Goffin’s 42nd victory in 44 matches since his straight-sets loss to Andy Murray at Wimbledon, and the first time the 23-year-old Belgian has beaten a top-10 player.
“It’s one of my nicest victories, if not the nicest,” the seventh-seeded Goffin said. “It’s really pleasing. I can’t really comprehend what I’ve achieved since Wimbledon- more than 40 victories, two titles ... I think I’ll only realize what I’ve achieved when I’m on holiday.”
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Goffin broke early on but was broken back when serving for the opening set, shortly after some lights went out and halted the match for approximately 20 minutes.
Raonic looked to be building on his convincing win in the tiebreaker, but Goffin saved another break point at the start of the second set before breaking in the penultimate game to leave him serving to level the match.
The Belgian took a decisive lead in the seventh game of the final set and he threatened to break again but Raonic saved two match points one with his 21st ace.
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Goffin finally converted his fourth match point when Raonic returned a powerful serve long.
Becker double-faulted three times to be broken by Karlovic in the opening game.
The German tried to fight back against the big Croat, who is more than a foot taller than him, and Karlovic had to save three break points before taking the first set.
Although Becker won the next three games, Karlovic was not broken again and he served out the match at love, ending with an ace.