Spanish wildcard Pablo Carreno Busta advanced to the semi-finals of the Winston-Salem Open after defeating 18-year-old American qualifier Learner Tien 6-4, 6-2 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex on Thursday. Carreno Busta, ranked No. 300, will now face another American teen, the No. 11 seed and 19-year-old Alex Michelsen, in the next round. This marks Carreno Busta’s first semi-final on the ATP Tour since winning the Montreal Masters in 2022 after overcoming injuries that kept him sidelined for a significant portion of the past two years.
The 33-year-old Spaniard secured victories against American qualifier Omni Kumar (6-2, 6-0), Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko, the No. 13 seed (6-2, 6-2), and Australian Aleksandar Vukic (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) in the earlier rounds of the tournament. He now holds the record for the most wins in Winston-Salem Open history with 19 victories.
On the other hand, Learner Tien, ranked No. 231, defeated Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate (3-6, 6-2, 6-3), Hungarian Fabian Marozsan, the No. 9 seed (6-2, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (2)), and Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild (6-4, 6-3) in previous matches.
In other quarter-final results at the Winston-Salem ATP 250 event, Alex Michelsen overcame Christopher Eubanks (WC) with a score of 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), David Goffin defeated Rinky Hijikata (16) 6-1, 6-3, and Lorenzo Sonego (10) emerged victorious against Pavel Kotov (15) with a score of 6-3, 7-5.
