Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka booked his first ATP quarter-final on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Marinko Matosevic at Delray Beach.
Nishioka, a 19-year-old left-hander, notched just his second ATP Tour win, converting five of his nine break-point opportunities in the 1 hour, 9 minute encounter.
“I’m so happy,” said Nishioka, the world No. 154. “At the beginning I was so nervous, but I think he was nervous, too. I just tried to make every ball. Every shot, I was focused on it.”
Nishioka is the first teenager to reach the Delray Beach quarter-finals since Bernard Tomic in 2012. He next faces Australia’s Tomic for a place in the semi-finals.
Tomic, now 22, held on Thursday to beat eighth seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4.
Tomic withstood 13 aces from Troicki, who is his doubles partner this week, sealing the win in just under two hours.
“Today was very cold, so it was tough for both of us,” said Tomic, who reached his fourth quarter-final of the season. “It was good tennis. We both served pretty good. I was happy to win because it’s a tough match playing Viktor.”
Donald Young of the US continued his strong start to the season, reaching his third quarter-final of the year with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Colombian Alejandro Gonzalez.
Young, the world No. 56, needed just 1 hour, 7 minutes to book a meeting with third seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
Dolgopolov beat Tim Smyczek of the US 6-2, 6-4 to reach his first quarter-final of the season.
“The wind was maybe more than the first day, so I needed to stay concentrated,” Dolgopolov said. “Sometimes I got nervous, but I think I handled it quite well.”
Young is riding a wave of confidence after reaching the semi-finals last week at the Memphis Open, where he lost to second seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
“I beat some quality players there, three in a row, which is something I haven’t done often in my career,” Young said.
“I got a lot of confidence from that and I came back in a couple situations, a couple [of] tight sets, so that was good,” he said.
OPEN 13
Top seed Milos Raonic of Canada was knocked out of the Open 13 in his first match on Thursday after a shock 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/3) second-round loss to Simone Bolelli, who recorded the biggest win of his career.
Raonic, who had a first-round bye, hit 21 aces to Bolelli’s seven, but converted just one of eight break-point opportunities.
“There were many close games, but I couldn’t make the most of my chances,” Raonic said. “I served better as the match went on, but he made it through when it mattered the most.”
Bolelli broke the longest losing streak against top-10 opponents in the Open era, with his first victory after 35 defeats.
The Italian faces seventh seed Gael Monfils of France in the quarter-finals.
Third seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia was eliminated in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Chardy has another difficult test, against compatriot Gilles Simon, after the fifth seed beat Borna Coric 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka is now the highest-ranked player in the tournament after the Swiss player eased past wild-card Benoit Paire of France 6-2, 6-3 in less than an hour.
Wawrinka, who has won more matches than any other player on the ATP Tour this year, moved to a 15-1 record as he booked a quarter-final against Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Another seeded player, No. 6 David Goffin of Belgium, retired with a rib injury when losing 5-1 to Austria’s Dominic Thiem.
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