Defending champion Alex de Minaur on Thursday powered into the Washington Open quarter-finals with a clinical 6-2, 6-3 victory over fellow Australian Cruz Hewitt.
Men’s second seed Ben Shelton also advanced, as did women’s top seed Jessica Pegula and No. 2 Elina Svitolina.
Top-seeded De Minaur was always likely to prove too much for 17-year-old qualifier Hewitt — son of Aussie great Lleyton Hewitt — who had only captured his first ATP victory in Tuesday’s first round.
Photo: EPA
The first set threatened to become a demolition as De Minaur raced to a 5-0 lead, but Cruz Hewitt found his feet, breaking back in the sixth game and holding serve before succumbing 6-2.
Cheered on by a crowd that included his famous father, Cruz Hewitt started the second set brightly, but he was broken again on his second service game and could not reel in De Minaur, who warmly embraced the youngster at the net after completing the victory.
It was the first head-to-head ATP Tour match between the two, who have known each other for years.
Photo: AFP
“It was definitely weird,” De Minaur said. “I knew I was going to play him on the tour someday, but I didn’t actually expect it to be this week.”
De Minaur next faces American Brandon Nakashima, who upset Czech seventh seed Jakub Mensik 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4.
US home hope Shelton advanced with a gritty 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4, victory over France’s Ugo Humbert.
“For me, it was all about heart tonight,” Shelton said after lining up a meeting with Chile’s Alejandro Tabile, a 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) winner over France’s Terence Atmane.
Pegula also had to rally from a set down, saying she started her match against Poland’s Magdalena Frech “just a little off” after a first-round bye.
“I wasn’t quite attacking the ball, and I felt like once I did that, then everything else kind of started to click together,” said Pegula, who finished with 42 winners and won 12 of the final 15 games to triumph 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Pegula next plays fifth-seeded Anna Kalinskaya, who saved two match points to beat Indonesia’s Janice Tjen 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).
Ukraine’s Svitolina booked her quarter-final berth with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 victory over Uzbekistan’s Polina Kudermetova.
She faces rising Philippines star Alexandra Eala for a place in the semi-finals.
In Mexico, Taiwan’s Ray Ho was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles at the Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel.
Ho and partner Benjamin Kittay of the US were beaten 7-6 (8/5), 6-3 by US pair Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac at the US$909,790 hard-court tournament at the Solaz Resort and Spa Los Cabos.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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