Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic stay perfect and reach final four at Next Gen Finals

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic maintained their perfect starts to the Next Gen Finals on Thursday to reach the semifinals.

The top-seeded Fils beat Dominic Stricker 4-2, 3-4 (3), 4-2, 4-3 (5) to make it three wins out of three in the round-robin stage.

Stricker also reached the semifinals of the tournament for the top eight ATP Tour players aged 21 or under. The Swiss player needed to win just one set to do so after Luca Nardi beat Flavio Cobolli 3-4 (4), 4-2, 4-3 (1), 1-4, 4-3 (3) earlier in the green group.

Medjedovic rallied to beat Jordanian wild card Abdullah Shelbayh 3-4 (6), 4-2, 4-3 (5), 4-2. The Serbian sixth seed will face Stricker in the semifinals.

The result also meant Luca Van Assche reached the final four after the second-seeded French player beat Alex Michelsen of the United States 4-3 (0), 3-4 (4), 3-4 (4), 4-1, 4-3 (6).

Van Assche will play compatriot Fils.

It's the sixth edition of the Next Gen Finals. It's being held in Saudi Arabia for the first time after being staged in Milan ever since the inaugural edition in 2017. Other changes to the usual tennis rules include shorter changeovers and less time on the shot clock for some points.

Fils is the only one of the players in the draw ranked in the top 50. Of the players ranked above him who would be eligible by age, Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune are exempt because they qualified for the ATP Finals, while Ben Shelton is out for medical reasons and Lorenzo Musetti withdrew on personal grounds.