Cuevas Finds Serve & Path To Victory in Antwerp

Fourth seed Pablo Cuevas struck 11 aces to move past qualifier Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 7-6(4) on Wednesday and reach the European Open quarter-finals in Antwerp. He will meet Diego Schwartzman or #NextGen star Taylor Fritz, who won 80 per cent of his first-serve points and came back to beat German wild card Joris De Loore 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Third seed Richard Gasquet lost only two first-serve points (24/26) to beat Spaniard Inigo Cervantes 6-2, 6-4.

Fifth seed Gilles Simon, who reached last week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters semi-finals, converted five of six break points in a 6-3, 6-2 victory against German qualifier Yannick Maden. It was Simon’s 30th match win of the year. The Frenchman will face another German in round two, Jan-Lennard Struff.

Top doubles seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut needed only 52 minutes to prevail against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Nenad Zimonjic 6-0, 6-3. Herbert/Mahut are looking to gather momentum heading into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held 13-20 November at The O2 in London. The Frenchman will be playing at the year-end championships for the second consecutive year.

View The Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London Standings