The four-time champions needed one hour, two minutes to book their place in the quarter-finals, where they’ll face fellow Americans Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow.

In other action, top seeds Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus reached the Open 13 Provence semi-finals after a 6-3, 6-3 win over Florin Mergea and Daniel Nestor. Klaasen and Venus reached their second semi-final of the season (Auckland) with great composure, saving all six break points they faced in the 57-minute contest.

Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin needed a Match tie-break to join Klaasen and Venus in the final four. The Indian-French duo dropped just five points behind its first serve, but needed to come from a set down to beat Jamie Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-4. Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot edged two tie-break sets to overcome Maximilian Marterer and Joao Sousa 7-6(11), 7-6(2). The fourth seeds saved five set points in a dramatic first set before eventually booking a second-round clash with Jonathan Eysseric and Gilles Simon.

David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco upset fourth-seeded team Santiago Gonzalez and Julio Peralta, 7-5, 3-6, 10-2 to advance to the semi-finals at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The Spanish pair will play the winners between second seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares and Roman Jebavy/Leonardo Mayer for a place in the final.

In a rain-interrupted Wednesday, a pair of South Americans – Nicolas Jarry and No. 6 seed Diego Schwartzman – have surged into the Rio Open presented by Claro quarter-finals. Chilean Jarry started the day with an upset of No. 4 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain, 7-5, 6-3, before Schwartzman breezed through an all-Argentine clash with Federico Delbonis 6-2, 6-3.

Top seed Marin Cilic was locked in a gripping battle with former top tenner Gael Monfils before rain cancelled the night’s play. The Croat had rebounded from dropping the opening set and saved a match point after a rain delay in the second set tie-break before rain returned with the pair locked at 3-6, 6-6 and 7-all in the tie-break.

“I was feeling very good but was a bit hyper, going for too much on the ball,” Jarry said of falling behind 3-5 in the first set. “I tried to not give any points to him and I broke him. I did a couple of good returns and after that he got a bit tighter and gave me the advantage for the rest of the match.”

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For Jarry, a win over Ramos-Vinolas marked his first win over a Top 20 opponent and landed him in a maiden ATP World Tour quarter-final.

“I’m happy to pull it over. I was getting very nervous,” the World No. 94 in the ATP Rankings said. “The last game that I broke him he didn’t have too much energy. I also lowered mine and I didn’t keep my focus on the things I had to do. A couple of big errors almost cost me that second set.

“It’s a tough match, Albert is one of the best clay-court players in the present. He’s a great guy and I’m very happy to be in the quarter-finals.”

The 22-year-old bounced back from 3-5 down in the opening set against the World No. 19. He finished up winning 10 of the last 13 games of the match and will next face either No. 7 seed Pablo Cuevas or Portugal’s Gastao Elias for a place in his first ATP World Tour semi-final.

“I’m just doing the same as I did last year – have fun on the court, train as hard as I can, stay very concentrated,” Jarry said.

“Last year I had a great year in Challengers. I didn’t have the ranking to play ATP [events]. Now I have and I’m making the best out of it and I’m very happy for being able to do it.”

Steve Johnson has denied Milos Raonic back-to-back Delray Beach Open finals appearances with his first win over the Canadian on Wednesday. The American posted a 6-2, 6-4 result over the No.9 seed to reach the quarter-finals.

Johnson had fallen in three prior FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Raonic. He will next meet Russian Evgeny Donskoy, an earlier 7-6(6), 6-3 winner over American Donald Young.

“The first set kind of got away from him with a second break so that is always comfortable,” Johnson said.

“It was important to get those first points on my serve to give myself a little bit of breathing room because when you get down and he starts hitting balls hard for winners, it’s kind of out of your control.”

World No. 51 in the ATP Rankings, Johnson withstood 11 aces from the 27 year old and lost just four points on his first serve to secure the result. It will be his first quarter-final appearance of 2018, a positive note in what has been by his own admission an up and down time of late.

“Still trying to keep my head above water and just take it one day at a time,” Johnson said. “Any chance you get to play more matches that always builds confidence.”

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Raonic was in no way ready to apportion blame for his defeat on the blustery conditions disrupting his rhythm on Wednesday. The loss sees him fall to a 1-3 start to 2018.

“I’ve got to definitely review it, think about it, because that was a pretty poor level I put out there today. Not much to be happy with,” he said.

“I think he was just sharp. I’ve played him before so I knew what to expect. He was more aggressive today than other times. Was that my lack of creation, or was he just taking over and making me feel, in a lot of ways, silly out there? … I had a tough time with a lot of things today.” 

In a mixed day for the Americans, No. 6 seed John Isner also fell. German Peter Gojowczyk eked out a 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 7-6(5) triumph over the three-time Delray Beach Open semi-finalist to await the winner of top seed Jack Sock and #NextGen ATP player Reilly Opelka. It is Gojowczyk’s third quarter-final of 2018 having already reached the last eight in Doha and Auckland.

Without Hyeon Chung’s breakout in Milan last November, would the 21-year-old have made South Korean history and reached the Australian Open semi-finals?

Before the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, Chung had made only one semi-final in his career (2017 Munich). Winning back-to-back-to-back-to-back matches was not something he did with ease.

Then the Next Gen ATP Finals happened, and everything changed, says Neville Godwin, Chung’s coach since December. In Milan, Chung blitzed through the draw, winning five consecutive matches for the first time in his career.

Sure, the rules were different, but the pressure points were more abundant than ever – deciding duece points, tie-breaks at three-all, and shorter sets that put an even higher premium on service breaks – and Godwin believes Chung’s mindset changed after the 21-and-under tournament.

“I think if you look at his history up until that stage, he hadn’t really gone deep… He hadn’t won many back-to-back big matches. And I think playing in the environment that was in Milan, it was such a great event, and beating really good players… I think really kickstarted him to start believing, ‘OK, I can do this,’” Godwin told ATPWorldTour.com in Delray Beach.

What happened next has been well-documented: Chung came back from two sets to one down to beat World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the third round of the Australian Open. Chung then knocked out six-time champion Novak Djokovic and Tennys Sandgren of the U.S. to become the first South Korean – male or female – to make the semi-finals of a Grand Slam.

“I really didn’t know I was going to make the semi-finals of a Grand Slam,” said Chung, who had reached the third round of a Slam only once before, 2017 Roland Garros (l. to Nishikori). “I can play more positive in the court and on and off the court, I’m just so happy.”

Chung and Godwin started working together in December, shortly after Godwin had split with South African Kevin Anderson. Chung and Anderson share an agent, so 10 days to a couple weeks after Anderson and Godwin split, Godwin was asked what he thought about working with Chung. They trained for a week together in Bangkok before heading to the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Australian Open.

Godwin, however, has already begun tweaking Chung’s game, and the results have showed. Chung’s power base is his Seqouia-esque legs, so Godwin has brought Chung’s feet closer together before he serves. Think more like an Andy Roddick jumping-straight-up serve, Godwin said.

“He’s obviously got incredibly strong legs so we’re trying to incorporate that more into the serve,” Godwin said. “He’s much more comfortable with it.”

It showed on the blue courts of Melbourne. During the past 52 weeks, Chung has won 71.8 per cent of his first-serve points, and 49.3 per cent of his second-serve points, according to the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS, powered by Infosys NIA Data.

But in Australia, Chung ticked up both numbers, capturing 72.3 per cent of his first-serve points and almost 53 per cent of his second-serve points.

“I think that was key… his serve numbers definitely went up from where they were last year, which helped him hold serve more… and that frees you up to be more offensive on your return games and that showed as well, because he broke serve many times,” Godwin said.

Godwin has also tried to make Chung more conscious of his routine rally shots. For instance, the South Korean might hit a very clean ball but it lands on the service line, letting his opponent immediately jump on offence.

“That’s a good ball. [But] you don’t want to hit the ball in the middle, you want to hit the ball more away from the guy, so you get the guy moving,” Godwin said. “The more the other guy is moving, now it becomes a moving battle and you move better than anybody, just about, so that favours you.”

The newly-formed team knows it won’t be a straight line at every tournament. There will be dips, early losses, disappointing finishes. But three tournaments in, it’s hard to argue with the changes, the results and the effect Milan had on Chung.

“If he can reproduce what he was doing in Australia, I think he’s very close,” Godwin said of Chung reaching the Top 10. “What remains to be seen, is how often can he reproduce that level of tennis… He’s got a really level head and I think he’s enjoying the process.”

Did You Know?
Chung’s Infosys Serve Rating is 153.7, 10th best on the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS, powered by Infosys NIA Data.