Novak Djokovic converted his fourth match point to beat Donald Young 6-2, 7-6 (9) Thursday and advance to the semifinals at the Eastbourne International. The top-seeded Djokovic saved two set points, on Young's serve at 5-4 and on his own serve in the tiebreaker, and clinched victory with a return winner. Djokovic will play Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament on England's south coast, after the Russian player beat fourth-seeded Steve Johnson 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Second-seeded Gael Monfils will play seventh-seeded Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal match Friday. Monfils defeated Bernard Tomic 7-6 (4), 6-0 and Gasquet beat third-seeded John Isner 6-3, 6-2. IN the women's section, Britain's Johanna Konta beat French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal with world No. 1 Angelique Kerber. Two days of rain delays at the south coast grass court event left a backlog of matches with Konta, who grew up in Eastbourne and is Britain's big hope in the Wimbledon women's draw next week, one of several facing a punishing schedule. The last-four clash was due to follow only hours later. "I think the scoreline and the match itself shows that it was an incredibly tough battle and there was very little in it," Konta, the Australian-born fifth seed, said on court after seeing off the 20-year-old Latvian. "Against a player like her who has such a big game, sometimes it's difficult to accept that you haven't got much say in some points." If Konta beats Kerber, who overcame Spain's Lara Arruabarrena 6-2 6-1, Romanian Simona Halep could take the world No. 1 ranking by reaching the final. Second seed Halep beat Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 6-7(6) 7-6(4) 7-5 in her third round match. Lauren Davis of the US overcame eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6, 6-1 in a rain-delayed match before then losing in the third round to Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2. British No. 3 Heather Watson gave the home fans another quarterfinalist by beating Russian 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-3. — Agencies
