Evans Soars Into Sydney QFs
Third seed Daniel Evans continued his perfect start to the season Wednesday, overcoming Spaniard Pedro Martinez 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals at the Sydney Tennis Classic.
The 31-year-old, who won three singles matches and two doubles rubbers at ATP Cup last week for Great Britain, did not face a break point en route to his 85-minute victory against the Spaniard.
Evans advanced to the final in Sydney in 2017 and will next face either American Maxime Cressy or sixth seed Dusan Lajovic.
Top seed Aslan Karatsev earned his first win of 2022, downing Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes.
The Russian has fond memories in Australia, after enjoying a dream run to the semi-finals at the Australian Open last year. In a strong performance against Kecmanovic, Karatsev won 88 per cent (28/32) of his first-serve points and rallied from a break down in the first set to improve to 2-0 in their ATPHead2Head series.
[FOLLOW ACTION]The 28-year-old, who was named 2021 ATP Most Improved Player of the Year, will next play fifth seed Lorenzo Sonego after the Italian swept aside #NextGenATP Argentine Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-3 in 81 minutes.
#NextGenATP American Brandon Nakashima also advanced as he maintained his impressive tie-break record at the ATP 250 event to reach the last eight.
The 20-year-old defeated Fabio Fognini 7-6(7), 7-6(6) in one hour and 59 minutes to earn his second tour-level victory over the Italian. The World No. 68 also won two tie-break sets against Jiri Vesely in his first-round match on Tuesday.
Nakashima will meet countryman Reilly Opelka in the quarter-finals following the fourth seeds 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Australian wild card Jordan Thompson. The big-serving World No. 25 fired 10 aces to advance in 79 minutes.