Chardy Wins All-French Battle In Adelaide

Jeremy Chardy had a familiar foe across the net in fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon on Monday at the Adelaide International. In a battle of all-French veterans, it was Chardy who moved into the second round with a 6-3, 7-5 win.

Chardy missed a chance to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, but recovered to advance in one hour and 33 minutes. The 32-year-old improved to 3-4 in his ATP Head2Head with Simon and has won their past three meetings. He’ll take on fourth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta for a place in the quarter-finals.

Brit Dan Evans continued his outstanding tennis from the ATP Cup by easing past Argentine Juan Ignacio Londero 6-2, 6-4. Evans went 3-1 in singles play and scored a Top 20 win against Alex de Minaur in Great Britain’s quarter-final tie against Australia. Next up for him is Kazakh Alexander Bublik.

American Sam Querrey fired 28 aces and didn’t face a break point against French qualifier Gregoire Barrere, but was still pushed to the edge before prevailing 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-6(5). He’ll meet third-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev in the next round. Rublev captured his third ATP Tour title last week at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (d. Moutet).

South African Lloyd Harris scored the upset of the day by taking out sixth-seeded Chilean Cristian Garin 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4. Awaiting him in the next round is Serbian Laslo Djere.

Australian wild card James Duckworth defeated Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-4 in 67 minutes. The 27-year-old converted both his break points and won 87 per cent of first-serve points (34/39) to book a second-round clash against Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Kubot/Melo Open 2020 Campaign In Style
Second seeds Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo opened their season with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win over Raven Klaasen/Oliver Marach. Awaiting them in the quarter-finals are Maximo Gonzalez/Fabrice Martin, who defeated Alex Bolt/Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-3.

Garin and Londero recovered from singles losses to beat home favourites Lleyton Hewitt and Jordan Thompson 6-3, 2-6, 10-7. The Chilean-Argentine pairing will meet fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek or Chris Guccione and Robert Lindstedt for a place in the semi-finals.