Wild Card Shevchenko Advances In Astana

Wild card Alexander Shevchenko snapped a four-match losing streak on Wednesday at the Astana Open, where he overcame Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-3 at the ATP 250 event.

Shevchenko earned his first tour-level hard-court wins in Washington in August, when he defeated Maxime Cressy and Sebastian Korda. The 22-year-old looked sharp against van de Zandschulp, breaking the World No. 68’s serve four times to advance in the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.

Shevchenko, currently No. 84 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, will next play Hamad Medjedovic after the #NextGenATP Serbian advanced against Laslo Djere.

Medjedovic was leading 6-3, 2-1 on tournament debut when countryman Djere was forced to retire. The 20-year-old Medjedovic, who is the youngest player in the draw, is aiming for a deep run in Astana to boost his Next Gen ATP Finals chances.

The Serbian is currently ninth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Jeddah, having won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this year.