David Goffin needed just an hour and three minutes on Thursday afternoon to vault into the semifinals of the Winston-Salem Open.
Goffin made quick work of Rinky Hijikata, a former North Carolina star, 6-1, 6-3.
The 33-year-old from Belgium has continued his resurgence. He’s battled injuries through the years including suffering a knee issue just after the 2021 U.S. Open.
He’s ranked 90th, but in his career has six ATP titles to his credit.
“It was great, and the conditions were good,” Goffin said about the lack of humidity most of the week. “I’ve been lucky because I’ve played at the same time each day during the day so that’s been good.”
He had a good percentage of converting on second serves on Thursday winning 82% (14 of 17) of those chances. He also had six aces to his credit.
“I just had a really tough first round and after that I’ve played better and better each round,” Goffin said. “It’s great to win in straight sets for my body and for my confidence and everything else.”
Goffin had a tough first-round match needing three sets to beat Jaume Munar, then beat Luciano Darderi in straight sets before beating Arthur Rinderknech also in straight sets.
“I’m hitting the ball really well from the baseline,” he said. “And I’m being a little more aggressive and made him run a little bit from side to side. And I came to the net and finished some points there.”
His last ATP title came in 2022 in Marrakech in a tournament played on clay. His last outdoor hard-court title came in 2017.
Another factor playing in Goffin’s run is how wide open the tournament has become. The highest seed left is his opponent on Friday, Lorenzo Sonego, who is the 10th-seed.
“That kind of tournament is always open for all the players,” Goffin said. “It’s a strong field and all the rankings are quite close so anybody can beat anybody. It’s pretty open.”
This is Goffin’s fourth appearance in Winston-Salem and he’s in the semifinals for the first time. He’s got a 10-4 record here and loves the way he’s playing now.
“I’ve played a good level of tennis to be in the semifinals so we’ll see if I can keep it going tomorrow,” Goffin said.
The Belgian faces the only remaining seeded player, Italian Lorenzo Sonego (10), who dismissed Pavel Kotov earlier in the afternoon.
