Carreno Busta To Play Querrey In Stockholm

Pablo Carreno Busta advanced to his seventh ATP Tour quarter-final of the year on Thursday at the Intrum Stockholm Open. The fifth-seeded Spaniard knocked out Gianluca Mager, a lucky loser from Italy, 6-3, 7-6(2) in 87 minutes and now plays American Sam Querrey on Friday. Carreno Busta, who is now 27-19 on the season, captured his first singles title since May 2017 at the Chengdu Open (d. Bublik) three weeks ago.

Japanese lucky loser Yuichi Sugita, competing in his third tour-level tournament since Wimbledon in July, overcame Stefano Travaglia of Italy 7-6(6), 6-4 in one hour and 46 minutes. Travaglia hit 16 aces and could not convert a set point at 6/5 in the first-set tie-break.

“I am happy to make a quarter-final at tour-level this year,” Sugita, who also reached the 2017 quarter-finals, told ATPTour.com. “I played well, I am solid now and my tennis is back.”

Later today, top-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini, who has reached the semi-finals at the ATP 250 tournament for the past two years, meets Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Fognini is currently No. 11 in the 2019 ATP Race To London for one of the three remaining berths at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 from 10-17 November.