Winston-Salem Open 2015: Thursday Tennis Scores, Results, Updated Draw Schedule

The quarterfinals kicked off on Thursday at the Winston-Salem Open, with a No. 2 seed still in the running, an upstart qualifier looking to shock the field and reach the semifinals and an unfortunate injury that stole the tournament of a potentially intriguing quarterfinal clash.

Let's break down the day's results and recap the action.

Results

Matchup	1	2	3
Matchup	1	2	3
Matchup	1	2	3
Matchup	1	2	3
K. Pliskova (5)	2	2
L. Tsurenko	6	6
K. Anderson (2)	6	6
B. Coric (8)	2	6
S. Johnson (13)
Y. Lu (retired)
T. Bellucci (6)	3	2
M. Jaziri	6	6

Updated Draw

A look at the draw for the Winston-Salem Open entering Friday can be viewed here, via ATPWorldTour.com. 

Recap

The top remaining seed at the Winston-Salem Open, No. 2 Kevin Anderson, had little issue advancing to the semifinals on Thursday, knocking out Borna Coric in straight sets and improving his record in quarterfinals this season to 6-0. 

Anderson's record in semifinals isn't so spotless, however, as he's gone 2-3 this season.

He used a strong service game to win, blasting 10 aces and winning 87 percent of his first-serve points. Coric didn't so much as earn a break-point chance in Anderson's win. 

Nobody had an easier afternoon than No. 13 Steve Johnson, however, who didn't even need to lift his racket after Yen-Hsun Lu had to withdraw because of a back injury.

Johnson sympathized with Lu after the match, per John Delong of WinstonSalemOpen.com:

"

It’s never the way you want to win. (Lu is) a great competitor. We’ve played three or four times and he’s gotten the best of me the last couple times, so I was looking forward to going out there and playing him and seeing what kind of adjustments I could have made and measure your game up a little bit. But unfortunately for him I think his back is not feeling 100 percent, and with the US Open right around the corner he didn’t want to do anything to mess it up today. It’s unfortunate, but I’ll just take today and get ready for tomorrow.

"

Awaiting Johnson will be the story of the tournament, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who is ranked 140th in the world and has played seven matches in the past six days as a qualifier. Not only that, but he had never advanced to an ATP World Tour semifinal before Thursday.

That changed with his upset victory over Pablo Carreno Busta. Herbert was on the brink of losing, as he dropped the first set and faced a 5-4 deficit in the second set. But he managed to break Busta in the 10th game, won the tiebreaker and controlled the final set to earn the win.

Afterward, he spoke about recovering and getting back into the match after facing elimination. 

"It’s always difficult to finish a match," Herbert told WinstonSalemOpen.com. "There’s always a little bit more pressure on your serve. Actually he was really serving well the whole match. But this particular game, I don’t know, I hit some good returns on second serves. I got aggressive and put the pressure on him, and I did it."

Herbert's own service game was strong as well, however, as he ripped 14 aces and won 80 percent of his first-serve points. Johnson will represent a more difficult challenge, though; he has won seven of his last nine matches and has been excellent in August. 

By all measures, Johnson will be the favorite to advance on Friday. But Herbert hasn't gotten this far by worrying about his underdog status or allowing it to affect his game. The qualifier will be a tough out for Johnson in a truly intriguing semifinal.