Chung Sees Off Cuevas To Make 1st Masters 1000 QF

After making his first Grand Slam semi-final at the start of the year at the Australian Open, Hyeon Chung is now through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open. The 21-year-old South Korean raced past Pablo Cuevas, 6-1, 6-3, on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

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Chung’s breakthrough came with victory at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in November (d. Rublev) and since then he has gone from strength to strength, racking up a 15-5 record already in 2018. Last year, the right-hander did not claim his 15^th tour-level win until the Masters 1000 in Montreal in August.

Chung will next look to challenge either World No. 1 Roger Federer or Jeremy Chardy, who play later in Indian Wells. 

Chung has his sights set on the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings, having started the season at No. 58. Currently ranked No. 26, the Suwon native took down Cuevas in 73 minutes. After Chung had dominated to open up a 6-1, 5-0 lead, the wily Uruguayan veteran dug his heels in to make the South Korean work for his victory. Cuevas fended off seven match points to break back in the sixth game and then broke Chung again to bring the score back to 5-3, but the right-hander closed out victory at the third time of asking. 

Borna Coric joined Chung in the last eight as he battled past Next Gen American Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes.

Coric had lost only nine games in surging through to the R16 and looked set for another dominant display as he raced to secure the first set 6-2 against Fritz. But the 20-year-old American stood his ground in the second set. He failed to serve out the set when he had the opportunity at 5-4, but then held his nerve to save match point at 5/6 in the tie-break before levelling up on Stadium 1 with a roar.

Fritz carried his momentum into the decider with a break in the first game, but Coric, now working with Riccardo Piatti and Kristijan Schneider, clawed his way back to level in the fourth game. He then saved a crucial break point in the ninth game before breaking Fritz to clinch the match in the following game, converting his fourth match point overall.

Coric will look to reach his first Masters 1000 semi-final when he faces either Pablo Carreno Busta or Kevin Anderson in Indian Wells.

“That was just a really tough one,” said Fritz. “It obviously sucks to compete so hard and come back the way I did in the second-set tie-break and saved the match points just to double fault it away.

“It sucks, and it’s probably the biggest match I have played in my career as far as making a quarterfinals of a Masters, points, and all that. It’s really tough to lose that match.

“It stings a lot, but you do have to take away positives,” added Fritz. “I made the round of 16 for the first time, and I think I’m playing very good tennis.

“This year for me has been very consistent. I have had a lot of strong results. And I’m off to a really good start for the year, and I think I can build on this and make this more of a regular thing.”