Radu Albot surprised third seed John Isner at the inaugural New York Open on Wednesday evening to earn his first victory against an opponent inside the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings. 

It does not get any easier for the Moldovan, who will face former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals. But the Japanese superstar is not taking Albot lightly.

“He’s a very good grinder player and he doesn’t miss much,” Nishikori said of the World No. 91. “I’ve got to really focus against him.”

ATPWorldTour.com spoke to Albot after his second-round triumph against the home favourite, discussing his passions, what he wants to do after his career and more.

What’s your biggest passion outside of sport and why?
My hobby is to ride my bike. This is one of my favourite things. When I get home I ride the bike all the time with my friends. I just get excited for it. It’s my top hobby.

What was the last book you read?
I read a lot of books. I read the biographies of a lot of players, like Andre Agassi. I read The Four Musketeers. I also read The Mindset, a book about psychology.

If you could have dinner with three people who would they be?
Maybe some famous people or some actor.

Favourite Movie?
Mr. Brooks.

Last concert or show you attended?
I was at a lot of shows. I was at Aladdin. I was at The Lion King. The last one I was at was Cirque du Soleil.

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Favourite sport to watch besides tennis?
Speaking about sports, now it’s the Winter Olympics. I like the biathlon a lot. I like watching curling. If you talk about some other sports, not in the winter, I like soccer.

Favourite club?
I like Real Madrid.

Whom do you admire most?
I admire my father, I have to say, because he helped me a lot in life and taught me a lot of things. So I think that’s the person I admire the most.

My tennis career will be a success if ___________
I can’t say my career is not a success. Everybody is proud with what they achieved and what they’ve done. I guess human beings all the time want more and more. You have something, you want something else. You want more. But nobody is really satisfied and thankful for what they have at the moment. So I think I would say my career is a success. Of course you want to be [ranked] higher, but I’m happy.

After my tennis career, I want to ___________
I think I would like to stay in tennis, in sport, maybe to open an academy in my country because tennis and everything is not really well developed in my country and I would like to help the kids get better. There is not really a player who is coming behind me. As a professional, there are no ranked players. So maybe I would like to improve the sport in my country and create some possibilities for the younger kids.

Kei Nishikori is looking more and more like his former self. Nishikori, the former World No. 4 who’s on the comeback from right-wrist surgery last year, advanced to the New York Open quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The fifth seed needed only 65 minutes to get past Russian Evgeny Donskoy 6-2, 6-4. The Japanese star won 84 per cent of his service points (37/44), including a higher percentage on his second serve (17/20, 85%) than his first (20/24, 83%).

Almost exactly a year ago, Donskoy shocked Roger Federer at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, handing the Swiss his first loss of 2017. But Nishikori avoided a stunner and will next face Moldova’s Radu Albot, who upset home favourite and third seed John Isner 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3.

Spoiler alert: Isner’s serve was spot on – the American hit 28 aces to just one from Albot. But the 28-year-old from Chisinau seized his lone break point in the decider to reach the quarter-finals on Long Island.

“Everybody knows that John has the best serve on tour. It’s very difficult to return his serve. You just have to guess, be able to somehow put the ball in the court. You just don’t know, you just react. If you put the ball in the court then you’re in the game and then you try to create something,” Albot said.

Fourth seed Adrian Mannarino secured his second quarter-final of 2018 (Sydney) when German Peter Gojowczyk retired down 7-6(5), 5-7, 1-4. Mannarino is at a career-high No. 25 in the ATP Rankings but the Frenchman is still searching for his maiden ATP World Tour title. He is currently the highest-ranked player without an ATP World Tour crown.

“I was disappointed to lose the first set but I was playing well and I just told myself that I should continue to play this way and see if there’s any chance to let him play one or two bad games,” Mannarino said.

The left-hander will next face Spain’s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras, who, a day after saving five match points against seventh seed Steve Johnson, made his second-round match look relatively easy. The Spaniard prevailed past Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 7-6(5).

Dominic Thiem improved to 6-0 at the Argentina Open on Wednesday, beating home favourite Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 6-3 in his attempt to repeat his 2016 title at the ATP World Tour 250 event.

The Austrian erased the lone break point and, although he finished the second-round contest in a quick 90 minutes, Thiem will look to improve upon his break-point conversion rate – he was three for 10 against Zeballos, a 2010 quarter-finalist, on Estadio Guillermo Vilas.

Six of Thiem’s eight ATP World Tour titles have come on clay, and the surface is by far his best, according to his FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record. Thiem is 84-30 on clay, a winning percentage of 74. On grass, he’s 13-11 (54%), and on hard court, he’s 81-69 (54%).

Fifth seed Argentine Diego Schwartzman advanced to the quarter-finals at his home tournament for the first time, breaking Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci five times to advance 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The last Argentine to win the Buenos Aires title was David Nalbandian in 2008.

Spaniards have dominated play in the Argentine capital, winning seven consecutive titles from 2009-2015. But Wednesday was not their day. Eighth seed Fernando Verdasco fell to Argentine Guido Pella 6-2, 6-4. Pella will face Thiem in the quarter-finals. Third seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, also of Spain, dropped his second-rounder against Slovakia’s Aljaz Bedene 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in two hours and 10 minutes. Bedene will next meet Schwartzman.

DID YOU KNOW?
Schwartzman has the third-highest Infosys Return Rating at 167.4. Learn more in the ATP Stats LEADERBOARDS, powered by Infosys NIA Data.

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau took just 49 minutes to reach the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament semi-finals, on Wednesday, with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop.

The fourth seeds, bidding for a second title in Rotterdam after success in 2015, secured 80 per cent of points behind their first serves and won 20 of the 41 points contested in their Dutch opponents’ service games to dominate the match. Rojer and Tecau won seven successive games from 1-1 in the first set to take a firm hold of the match and looked comfortable throughout as they notched their 13th win in 16 matches as a team in Rotterdam.

Third seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut reached the quarter-finals in Rotterdam after beating Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 6-4. The French duo faced only one break point in the 69-minute clash, which they saved, before moving into a last eight meeting against Karen Khachanov and compatriot Lucas Pouille.

Did You Know?
Rojer and Tecau are the only team remaining in the draw to have previously won the title. Former champions Ivan Dodig (2017) and Nicolas Mahut (2014, 2016) both won their titles in Rotterdam while competing with different partners.

Roger Federer began his quest to return to World No.1 for the first time in over five years with a 6-1, 6-2 win over qualifier Ruben Bemelmans at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

Federer, who will overtake Rafael Nadal at the top of the ATP Rankings if he reaches the semi-finals, moved to within just two wins of the achievement after his first-round win over the No. 116.

The 36-year-old also moved one step closer to becoming the oldest World No. 1 in history, with Andre Agassi currently holding the record. The American last held the top spot on 7 September 2003 at the age of 33. Federer’s next opponent, Philipp Kohlschreiber, trails the 20-time Grand Slam champion in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 0-12.

Grigor Dimitrov began his campaign for a first ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title with a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6(5) win over Yuichi Sugita on Wednesday.

Watch Hot Shot As Sugita Floors Dimitrov

The 2013 semi-finalist was made to work hard throughout the one-hour, 46-minute encounter against Sugita, but found his best level at the tail-end of both sets to secure the win. In the first set, Dimitrov broke his Japanese opponent at the perfect time, in a marathon tenth game, to take a one-set advantage. Sugita, who was making his debut in Rotterdam at the age of 29, served to force a deciding set at 5-4, but Dimitrov once again showed his quality in the crucial moments to break serve. The Bulgarian went on to clinch victory on his second match point in the tie-break.

Standing between Dimitrov and a place in the quarter-finals is Filip Krajinovic. The Rolex Paris Masters finalist edged 17-year old Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 on Tuesday.

Montpellier champion Lucas Pouille’s first match after winning his fifth career title ended in defeat, after #NextGenATP star Andrey Rublev shocked the No. 7 seed 7-5, 6-4. On his main draw debut in Rotterdam, Rublev broke the Frenchman on four occasions, after trailing 0-3 in the first set, to secure his place in the second round. The Russian No. 1 will next face Damir Dzumhur who upset another of last week’s success stories, Marius Copil, 6-4, 6-4.

Did You Know?
Grigor Dimitrov made his ATP World Tour main-draw debut and secured his first tour-level win in the Netherlands. In 2008, Dimitrov lost to Igor Andreev in s-Hertogenbosch in his first tour encounter and won his first match at tour-level in 2009 against Tomas Berdych in Rotterdam.