Donaldson Battles Through; Khachanov Beaten In Chengdu

#NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson battled into the quarter-finals of the Chengdu Open as he edged Kyle Edmund 6-0, 1-6, 6-4 on Wednesday at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament.

It is an important win for the 20-year-old Donaldson, who is currently sixth in the Emirates ATP Race To Milan, as he bids to qualify for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals. Just five weeks remain in the battle to qualify for the eight-player event.

Donaldson defeated Edmund for the second time this year, breaking the Briton in the final game of the match to convert his third match point after one hour and 39 minutes. The right-hander also came through a tight first-round encounter, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 in the third set. He is looking to reach his first ATP World Tour semi-final.

“Once you do it once, you know you could do it again. I knew that if I played well, if I played my game, I had a really good chance to win the match,” Donaldson said. “At the end of the day, each match is a new day, it’s a new match…again, it was a really close match. That’s what you expect at this level.”

There was disappointment for second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas and third seed Karen Khachanov, though.

Dusan Lajovic won 76 per cent of his service points as he upset Ramos-Vinolas, 6-2, 6-3, in 67 minutes. The No. 84-ranked Lajovic is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since Kitzbuhel in July (l. to Kohlschreiber) and goes on to face fifth seed Yuichi Sugita, who was a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Thiago Monteiro.

Defending champion Khachanov fell at the first hurdle as he was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Denis Istomin. The 21 year old won his first ATP World Tour title in Chengdu 12 months ago, but was disappointed on his return, losing his serve three times in the 65-minute defeat.

“It’s really disappointing for me,” said Khachanov. “It just didn’t go the way I wanted in terms of playing the way I wanted. I just couldn’t find exactly my game today. I wasn’t aggressive and I was missing a lot. I haven’t been as consistent as I’d like in some tournaments this year, but that’s something I can improve, so that’s a positive thing.”

The 31-year-old Istomin, who famously defeated Novak Djokovic in the second round of the Australian Open in January, is through to his second quarter-final in a row after reaching the last eight in Metz last week (l. to Basilashvili).

Last week’s Metz champion, Peter Gojowczyk, survived a quick turnaround to defeat eighth seed Leonardo Mayer, 6-2, 6-2 in 55 minutes. The victory comes three days after the 28-year-old Gojowczyk captured his first ATP World Tour title at the Moselle Open (d. Paire), taking him to a career-high No. 66 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Top Seeds Upset, Second Seeds Cruise

Jonathan Erlich and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi led by a set and 4-1 against top-seeded Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. But after nearly squandering the lead, with Marach and Pavic earning three set points in the ensuing tie-break, the Israeli-Pakistani duo pulled off the upset, 6-4, 7-6(8) in one hour and 33 minutes.

Second seeds Julio Peralta and Michael Venus dropped just four games in their first-round dismissal of Borna Coric and Guido Pella, advancing with a 6-1, 6-3 win in 46 minutes. Peralta is coming off a runner-up showing in St. Petersburg with Horacio Zeballos.

Dominic Thiem, who is the top seed in the singles draw, paired up with Jan-Lennard Struff in the doubles, but the pair was defeated by Mayer and Ramos-Vinolas, 6-4, 6-2.

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