Alexis Galarneau defeated top seed Liam Broady 6-7(5), 7-6(1), 6-3 in three hours and twenty minutes in the quarter-finals of the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger.
The 290th ranked Canadian notched a second victory over the 132nd ranked Brit this season. This win, however, is more significant than the victory back in January. Broady recently reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon as a Wild Card, defeating former top 10 player Diego Schwartzman.
It required the longest match of the tournament for Galarneau to take out the tournament favorite. He is no stranger to long matches though, having also played the second longest match of the tournament in the first round against Ulises Blanch.
Each player broke serve five times in the match to get to 3-3 in the deciding set. Galarneau broke for a sixth time at 3-4 to serve for the match at 5-3. It was not a comfortable service game as Broady had a break-point opportunity at 30-40 to get back on serve.
Broady was visibly and audibly frustrated throughout the final game due to line calls he believed to be incorrect. Galarneau remained calm and converted on his 3rd match point to reach the semi-finals. He will play American qualifier Evan Zhu for a spot in the final.
In the other semi-final, the second seed Emilio Gomez (ECU) will face unseeded Enzo Couacaud (FRA).
It was a good day all-around for the Canadians. Kelsey Stevenson reached the doubles final with his partner Billy Harris of Great Britain. The pair won both their quarter and semi-final matches.
In the quarter-finals, they defeated Nicolas Mejia (COL) and Roberto Quiroz (ECU) 6-3, 6-3 in just 54 minutes. The short time on court gave them plenty of time to rest up for the semi-final. It was another swift defeat 6-3, 6-4 over Govind Nanda and Zachary Svajda of the United States in just over an hour.
Galarneau also played two matches but spent much more time on court. A few hours after his big singles win, he returned to play doubles with Liam Draxl. The Canadians lost the first set 6-3 to the Japanese team of Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi. They came back to win the second 7-5 but fell 10-5 in the super breaker.
The Japanese will face top seeds Max Schnur (USA) and John-Patrick Smith (AUS) for a spot in the doubles final against Stevenson and Harris. Schnur and Smith had the day off due to a walkover.
For more information about the event, please visit the tournament page on the ATP website, here.
