Balbo Topples Tenant In Turin

Julien Balbo survived a close-fought quarter-final contest with fellow Frenchman Romain Tenant in the 8 Gallery Open to reach the last four of the new PSA Tour event at the 8 Gallery Shopping Mall in Turin, Italy.

Balbo, the fourth seed, was taken to tie-breaks in two games before prevailing 11-4, 10-11 (1-3), 11-7, 11-10 (5-3) in 52 minutes.

The 27-year-old from Grenoble now meets Egypt's No2 seed Amr Ramzy Swelim for a place in the final.

The other semi-final will be an all-English affair between third seed Lee Drew and favourite Alex Stait.

Quarter-finals:
[1] Alex Stait (ENG) bt [Q] Jens Schoor (GER) 11-7, 11-7, 11-8 (36m)
[3] Lee Drew (ENG) bt [5] Chris Ryder (ENG) 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8 (49m)
[4] Julien Balbo (FRA) bt [Q] Romain Tenant (FRA) 11-4, 10-11 (1-3), 11-7, 11-10 (5-3) (52m)
[2] Amr Ramzy Swelim (EGY) bt [7] Luca Mastrostefano (ITA) 11-5, 5-11, 11-4, 11-6 (39m)