Russian top seed Karen Khachanov on Wednesday suffered a shock 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-4 defeat by unheralded Italian Matteo Berrettini in the second round of the Sofia Open.
The 22-year-old Khachanov was in devastating form at the start as he dropped only two points in his first four service games.
After bagging the first-set tiebreak, he then unexpectedly lost his way.
World No. 53 Berrettini fired down nine aces en route to booking a place in the quarter-finals.
“It was a very difficult first set, I didn’t play so well, but then I improved my performance in the second set and I think I played very well in the third,” Berrettini said.
Sixth seed Fernando Verdasco set up a second-round showdown with Romanian Marius Copil, who outclassed Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in the opening round.
Verdasco secured a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 victory over Bulgarian qualifier Alexandar Lazarov.
“I played very well today, very solid,” the 35-year-old said.
Fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who won the tournament in 2016, came back from a set down to beat Australian Matthew Ebden 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the round-of-16, while Hungarian Marton Fucsovics upset Italian eighth seed Andreas Seppi 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) in a first-round tussle.
Defending champion Mirza Basic was beaten by Slovakian big-hitter Martin Klizan in another first-round match.
World No. 38 Klizan clinched a 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 victory over the 27-year-old Bosnian, who lifted the trophy at Armeets Arena last year as a qualifier, winning seven matches in a week.
OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, France
Former champion Tomas Berdych on Wednesday swept aside Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour to reach the Open Sud de France quarter-finals.
The unseeded Czech broke Paire’s serve five times and saved both break points he faced against the eighth-seeded Frenchman.
Berdych, who won the indoor hard-court title in 2012, next faces Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in their first meeting on the ATP Tour.
The resilient Krajinovic beat second seed David Goffin of Belgium 6-4, 6-4 after withstanding 11 aces, saving all four break points and breaking Goffin’s serve twice.
No. 6 Jeremy Chardy and unseeded wild-card Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also won their second-round matches, setting up an all-French quarter-final.
Chardy had nine aces in a 6-3, 7-5 win against inexperienced countryman Antoine Hoang, who came through the qualifying rounds.
Tsonga had 11 as he won 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) against fourth seed Gilles Simon, beating him for the ninth time in their 12 meetings.
The 33-year-old’s ranking has plummeted to No. 210 following surgery on his left knee in April last year.
He lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Australian Open last month.
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Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
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