Top-seeded Frenchman Benoit Paire on Wednesday saved a match point and then fought back to beat compatriot Ugo Humbert 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to move into the quarter-finals of the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
Paire, 30, took 2 hours, 27 minutes to beat 21-year-old Humbert, who was the youngest player left in the men’s draw at Wimbledon last month prior to his last-16 exit at the hands of eventual champion Novak Djokovic.
“I’m really happy to win against him,” Paire said. “When you play against a young player from your country, you want to win. It’s good for the confidence.”
Photo: AP / The Winston-Salem Journal
Humbert nearly claimed victory in the second set when he served for the match at 6-5, but Paire managed to break the youngster to take the set to a tiebreak.
Paire is to face Spanish 11th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, who beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (9/7), 6-0.
On the other side of the draw, Canadian second seed Denis Shapovalov fired eight aces and converted five break points to beat Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-2, 6-3.
Shapovalov is to face Russia’s Andrey Rublev, who knocked out American sixth seed Sam Querrey in straight sets, avenging his second-round loss to the American at Wimbledon.
With the players breaking each other twice in the match, Rublev triumphed after both sets went into a tiebreak to win 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (12/10).
“It’s a special win for me. He just destroyed me, and now we had a great fight, and we were both so close and I was a little bit more lucky,” Rublev said.
American Frances Tiafoe and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz advanced as Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic retired due to an illness while Spaniard Feliciano Lopez was too fatigued to continue.
BRONX OPEN
Top seed Wang Qiang of China on Wednesday sailed into the Bronx Open quarter-finals with a convincing 6-1, 6-4 victory over French qualifier Fiona Ferro.
Wang, who received a bye into the last 16, converted six of eight break points to claim her first win since the second round of Wimbledon last month.
“I just tried to build my confidence for this tournament,” Wang said. “For me, it’s preparing for the US Open, so I will try my best this tournament.”
The match began with both players failing to hold serve before Wang took a 3-1 lead.
She then won the next five games in a row after Ferro made a number of unforced errors and double-faulted three times in the opening set alone.
Wang is to face Russia’s Anna Blinkova, who came back from a set down to beat Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Poland’s Magda Linette also marched into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over ninth seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
Unseeded Linette fired 10 aces and won 88 percent of her first service points to set up a clash with Czech 10th seed Karolina Muchova, who dispatched American wild card Kristie Ahn 6-3, 6-1.
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