Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis added Britain’s Dan Evans to his scalp belt having at the start of the week, downed Evan’s countryman Jack Draper in the opening round of the Los Cabos Open in Mexico.
The British No.2, currently ranked 42, failed to make the quarter finals following his 6-4 6-2 defeat which took just over two hours to complete.
For Kokkinakis it is his first tour-level quarter final since the beginning of 2023, securing a win with five aces compared to three from Evans.
Evans also hit three double faults while Kokkinakis had the better of the crucial points, saving four of the five break points against him.
In other action te 19-year-old American Alex Michelsen earned the biggest win of his career when he downed the in-form Australian, Alex de Minuar, the third seed 6-4 6-1 to record the best win of his young career after just 83-minutes.
“I think I played about as well as I could,” Michelsen said. “That’s something to remember for sure.”
Michelsen converted four of his six break points and next takes on another Aussie, the eighth seeded Jordan Thompson who had abit of trouble early on before beating American qualifier Emilio Nava 7-6(5) 6-3.
Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas off to a good start
(Photo by Shi Tang/Getty Images)
Meanwhile defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas progressed with a comfortable 6-3 6-0 defeat of Australian Aleksandar Vukic.
“Great to be back. Thank you guys,” a very satisfied Greek said following his win. “It was fun playing out here tonight. Thank you for your support. I’m happy that I got such a good win and showed the best of my tennis. I thank you for every single point that you’ve been cheering me on.”
Seeded second for the ATP 250 level event, Tsitsipas saved all three break points he faced and obviously hopes to emulate last year’s run when he dropped just one set on his way to becoming champion.
His quarter final opponent is American qualifier Aleksandar Kovavevic, who eventually edged past Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-3 4-6 6-4.
At the top of the draw Germany’s Alexander Zverev made a quick start to his campaign with a 6-3 6-0 win over Japan’s lefty Yoshihito Nishioka and now faces Kokkinakis for a place n the semis.
Zverev then admitted he had been working for some time to improve his serve, revealing: “It’s a shot that I’ve been working on over the last four, five years because sometimes it was a shot that made me lose a lot of matches, made me lose also a few very big matches, maybe like the US Open final. So I’m happy it’s working. I’m happy that the work is paying off.”
Finally the fourth seed, Norway’s Casper Ruud, playing in only his third event of the year, eliminated in-form American Marcos Giron 6-1 6-0.
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