Chris O’Connell appears to have transported the shape that introduced him a breakthrough on clay into the grass-court season as he powered into the Stuttgart Open quarter-finals.
The Croatian-based Sydneysider, who retains making spectacular strides on his European sojourn, ensured Australia would have a last-eight consultant within the pre-Wimbledon event following the tame early exit for Nick Kyrgios together with his 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 victory over Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
And whereas O’Connell was delighted to make sure he’ll attain one other career-high rating subsequent week, his up-and-coming fellow Sydneysider Rinky Hijikata was having fun with a bit of excellent luck as he made the last-eight of one other conventional Wimbledon warm-up occasion within the Netherlands.
O’Connell took one hour 53 minutes to defeat world No.41 Sonego, who’d knocked out his greatest pal, fellow Italian and reigning champ Matteo Berrettini within the first spherical.
It put O’Connell in his fourth ATP quarter-final of the season the place he’ll play Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, the world No.14 who generally is a significantly harmful buyer on this floor.
The Pole, although, needed to wrestle to get previous Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5).
O’Connell, who’s at the moment at a career-high No.74, would transfer to be the outright Australian No.3 behind Alex de Minaur and Kyrgios if he can beat Hurkacz.
In ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Hijikata in all probability could not consider his luck at having a second probability within the annual Dutch occasion, however took full benefit of being a ‘fortunate loser’ by defeating Swiss Marc-Andrea Huesler 2-6 7-5 6-3.
The 22-year-old Hijikata, who received the Australian Open males’s doubles with Jason Kubler, had been knocked out within the final spherical of qualifying to Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis.
But put again in the primary draw after one other participant’s withdrawal, Hijikata cashed in by, first, defeating dwelling favorite Gijs Brouwer in one other three-setter on Monday earlier than coming from a set all the way down to defeat Huesler on Wednesday.
The world No.133, who reached the last-eight within the Surbiton Challenger occasion final week, has made his first-ever tour-level quarter-final however might do properly to go any additional as he subsequent faces American Mackenzie Macdonald, ranked sixty fifth.
Also in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Italian Jannik Sinner started his grass season impressively, snuffing out the massive serving of Alexander Bublik for a 6-4 6-2 win.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
