Krajinovic, Dzumhur Come Through In Moscow

Players from the Balkans ruled Tuesday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina continued the best stretch of his career with a 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 win against Italian Thomas Fabbiano. The Sarajevo native went 18-3 from 31 July to 29 September, a stretch that included a number of milestones for the 25-year-old right-hander.

Dzumhur reached his first ATP World Tour final at the Winston-Salem Open. He won his maiden title at the St. Petersburg Open. And in late September, he gained his second Top 10 win of the season, knocking off then-World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the Shenzhen Open quarter-finals. Dzumhur, No. 38 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will next meet Indian qualifier Yuki Bhambri.

Serbian Filip Krajinovic upset home favourite and fifth seed Andrey Rublev in a tight opener, 7-5, 7-6(6). Rublev, who joined Zverev on Monday as qualifiers for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, led the second-set tie-break 5/2 but was unable to put away the 25-year-old qualifier, who picked up his first tour-level win of the year.

Krajinovic, No. 77, is 47-15 on the ATP Challenger Tour with five titles this season. He will next play Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, who beat Krajinovic’s countryman Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 7-6(2).

Lajovic’s countryman Laslo Djere played big under pressure to pull off an upset and move into the second round of the ATP World Tour 250. Djere saved a match point at 5/6 in the second-set tie-break to beat seventh seed Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 4-6, 7-6(9), 6-4 in two hours and 49 minutes. Djere will next face Bosnian qualifier Mirza Basic or Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia.