Evans Powers Into Adelaide Quarter-finals

Daniel Evans continued his strong start to the year on Tuesday at the Adelaide International, sprinting into the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Kazakh Alexander Bublik.

The Brit missed an opportunity to serve out the first set at 5-4, but responded by winning eight of the next 10 games to advance in 75 minutes. Evans arrived in top form after a solid run at the ATP Cup, where he 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.

He’ll play the winner of American Sam Querrey and third-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev for a place in the semi-finals. Rublev captured his third ATP Tour title last week at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (d. Moutet).

In first-round action, American qualifier Tommy Paul won 82 per cent of his first-serve points (27/33) to ease past Slovenian Aljaz Bedene 6-4, 6-4. The 22-year-old Paul broke into the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings last September on the back of winning three ATP Challenger Tour titles and earning his first ATP Masters 1000 victory in Montreal. Next up for him is Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas.

Dodig/Polasek, Murray/Skupski Advance
Fourth seeds Ivan Dodig/Filip Polasek opened their season with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory against Chris Guccione/Robert Lindstedt. The Croatian-Slovakian duo won their first team Masters 1000 title last August in Cincinnati (d. Cabal/Farah) and made their first team appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals. Dodig/Polasek take on Cristian Garin/Juan Ignacio Londero in the next round.

Jamie Murray/Neal Skupski enjoyed a strong finish to their 6-3, 4-6, 10-4 first-round win over Marcelo Demoliner/Matwe Middelkoop. The British pair will meet Jurgen Melzer/Edouard Roger-Vasselin in quarter-final action.