Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang cruised into the quarter-finals of the Claro Open Colombia on Thursday after defeating Britain’s James Ward 6-3, 6-1.
After battling for 2 hours, 10 minutes to overcome Poland’s Michal Przysiezny in three sets in the first round, Wang wasted no time in the second, dispatching the world No. 152 in just 49 minutes on Campo Central in Bogota.
World No. 133 Wang, who last made the final eight of an ATP Tour tournament in October 2007 at the Thailand Open in Bangkok, did not have to save any break-point chances against the Briton, while he converted a perfect four of four to set up a tough quarter-final clash against second seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia.
World No. 29 Karlovic began his title defense with a 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5) win over Dudi Sela of Israel and after the game received an unexpected hug from his opponent.
Instead of going straight to the net for the customary handshake after the 1 hour, 40 minute contest, Sela instead took a detour to the side of the court.
“After I won, I was going to the net to have a handshake and then I look at him and he’s going back to get a chair,” the 2.11m tall Karlovic told the ATP Tour Web site.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do, and then he arrives and he gives me a hug, which was unbelievable and hilarious,” Karlovic said. “Obviously he needed a hug, so I hugged him back. He’s a really nice guy and I like him a lot. It was funny.”
“I played five times with him and today I didn’t play bad,” Sela told the ATP Web site. “It was one point here or there, it was 7-6, 7-6; so to finish like this I didn’t mind. Some matches you feel very upset after the loss; I was OK with the loss. I played OK, he played better than me in the big points, so I said it’s going to be OK and I accepted this.”
“We’re good friends and I really like him, he’s a very nice guy,” Sela said. “I always wanted to hug him, but I didn’t have the chance and today I think was a good moment.”
“I saw the chair and I thought it would be nice to finish the match like this with a hug, so the crowd will see it’s OK,” he said. “I felt good with myself. Suddenly I felt 211[cm] like him... I think I was [still] shorter than him. It was funny.”
In Thursday’s other second-round matches, top seed Richard Gasquet of France edged Samuel Groth of Australia 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) to set up a quarter-final clash with No. 8 seed Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic, who defeated Peter Polansky of Canada 6-4, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.
HAMBURG OPEN
AP, HAMBURG, Germany
Lukas Rosol upset 2006 champion Tommy Robredo of Spain 7-5, 7-6 (7/6) to reach the Hamburg Open quarter-finals on Thursday.
The 42nd-ranked Czech saved seven break points while converting his one chance, and took nearly two hours to put away the No. 3 seed.
Rosol, who lost in the final in Stuttgart against Roberto Bautista Agut on Sunday, is next to play Philipp Kohlschreiber, the seventh-seeded German, who defeated 2011 champion Gilles Simon of France 7-5, 6-3.
Top seed David Ferrer of Spain beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for a quarter-final with compatriot Pablo Andujar, who eased past Dustin Brown of Germany 6-1, 6-2.
German wild-card Tobias Kamke knocked out the fourth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 in just over two hours.
The 83rd-ranked Kamke is next to face 17-year-old Alexander Zverev, another Hamburg native, who defeated Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-4, 7-6 (7/6) to keep his breakthrough run going.
The 285th-ranked Zverev defeated No. 5 seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia on Wednesday.
Leonardo Mayer of Argentina was also a winner, as well as Dusan Lajovic, against whom fellow Serb Filip Krajinovic retired in the first set due to illness.
ISTANBUL CUP
AP, ISTANBUL
Second-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy advanced to the Istanbul Cup quarter-finals when Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru retired with a right shoulder injury while trailing 6-3, 4-1 on Thursday.
Vinci also beat Dulgheru last week in Bucharest en route to her first WTA final in a year.
Vinci is next to face sixth-seeded Kurumi Nara of Japan, who beat Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakova 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (7/3), 6-2.
No. 8 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic downed Shahar Peer of Israel 6-2, 7-5 to line up top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the quarters.
Croatian qualifier Ana Konjuh reached her first quarter-final, and became the youngest at 16 to make the last eight on the Tour in almost two years, by outlasting Misaki Doi of Japan 6-4, 6-7 (7/3), 6-4. Konjuh was to meet rising star Elina Svitolina of Ukraine yesterday.
SWEDISH OPEN
AFP, BAGSTAD, Sweden
Results on the fourth day of the WTA Swedish Open on Thursday were Kaia Kanepi beating Richel Hogenkamp 6-3, 6-1, Mona Barthel defeating Gabriela Dabrowski 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, Silvia Soler Espinosa downing Julia Goerges 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 and Alexandra Panova defeating Grace Min 6-2, 6-4.
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