Basilashvili Takes Out Top Seed Thiem

Nikoloz Basilashvili caused the first major upset at the Garanti Koza Sofia Open, shocking top seed Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.

The Georgian player required just a single break of serve in each set. Basilashvili landed 77 per cent of his first serves and saved all three break points against him to wrap up the win in one hour and 18 minutes.

“I think I played really well on the important points and kept focus all the way through the match today,” said Basilashvili. “This is very special and one of the best wins of my career, if not the best one. It will give me a lot of confidence for the upcoming matches.”

Basilashvili picks up his second victory over a Top 10 player, having defeated Tomas Berdych this past October in Vienna. Last July, he became the first Georgian to reach an ATP World Tour final in Kitzbuhel (l. Lorenzi).

Next up for him is eighth seed Martin Klizan, who came alive in the latter stages of his second-round match with qualifier Daniel Brands to prevail 7-6(3), 6-2. Klizan racked up 12 break points to keep the German on defense throughout the contest.

Fifth seed Gilles Muller continued his outstanding season with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Mikhail Youzhny. Muller ran through the final three games of the match to advance into the last eight, where he’ll play fourth seed and defending champion Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Muller 4-1, including a win in the 2016 Sofia semi-finals.

Ninth seed Viktor Troicki scraped through a tight 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) match over Robin Haase. Last year’s finalist in Sofia now awaits the winner between third seed Grigor Dimitrov and former Top 15 player Jerzy Janowicz.