Halle (Germany), June 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) Andrey Rublev, the 2021 finalist, booked his spot in the last-eight stage of the Terra Wortmann Open with a straight sets win against Yannick Hanfmann here.
Rublev delivered a solid display to hold off the World No. 53 Hanfmann, winning 7-6(5), 6-3 at the grass-court ATP 500 event. With this win, Rublev improves his record in Halle to 8-3.
Home favourite Hanfmann had led 5/3 in the first-set tie-break but was unable to push on and forge a repeat of his victory in the pair's fourth-round meeting last month at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome.
After winning five of the final six points to claim the first-set tie-break, Rublev carried the momentum into the second set, in which he established an ultimately unassailable 4-0 lead.
With the OWL Arena roof closed during the second set to shelter the court from the torrential Halle rain, Rublev pushed on to a one-hour, 39-minute triumph in which he converted three of his six break points.
The World No. 7 will now prepare for his sixth tour-level quarterfinal of the season against last week's 's-Hertogenbosch winner Tallon Griekspoor. The 25-year-old Rublev is a 13-time ATP Tour titlist and is chasing his maiden crown on grass this week in Germany.
Griekspoor saved a match point against defending champion Hubert Hurkacz to notch a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(8) victory and extend his winning run to seven matches. The Dutchman knocked off the sixth seed on his fifth match point after Hurkacz battled back from 3/6 in the decisive tie-break to move within one point of the quarter-finals at 8/7.
The result levels the pair's ATP head-to-head series at 1-1 less than one month after Hurkacz downed Griekspoor in five sets in the French Open second round.
Entering Halle at a career-high ATP Ranking of World No. 29, Griekspoor is seeking the third ATP Tour title of both this season and his career.
Source: IANS
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz