DUBAI — Tunisian outsider Malek Jaziri continued his surprise run at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships by beating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas Thursday to reach the semifinals. The 34-year-old wildcard will next face third seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who beat Croatian Borna Coric 7-6 (7/4), 6-4. Jaziri overcame a second-set blip to see off qualifier Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and reach the third semifinal of his career.

French second seed Lucas Pouille defeated the Japanese eighth seed Yuichi Sugita 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in another quarterfinal match. Jaziri, who began his week by knocking out world No. 4 Grigor Dimitrov in the first round, is the first Arab player to get this far in Dubai since Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui in 2002, who reached the final and lost to France's Fabrice Santoro. The world No. 117 is now just one win away from reaching his first-ever ATP Tour final. It was a big fight today, not that easy at all, Jaziri said. I finished very late yesterday. I think I was in bed at 2:30, so I didn't sleep a lot. I tried to recover the most, I had to get ready today. It wasn't easy, I had less than 17 hours. I was up and down little bit today. But I'm happy to win this match. — AFP