No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia had little trouble defeating French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 6-4 in the Round of 16 at the Open 13 Provence on Thursday in Marseille, France.
Medvedev had an automatic bye into the second round and played his first match of the week Thursday. He won 39 of his 49 service points, including an overwhelming 26 of 29 on his first serve (89.7 percent), and saved the only break point he faced against Herbert.
Medvedev’s quarterfinal opponent will be Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who outlasted French qualifier Hugo Grenier 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
A pair of seeded players also fell Thursday, as China’s Zhizhen Zhang beat No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3, and Belgium’s Zizou Bergs took down No. 8 seed Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2. Bergs had 13 aces and saved both break points he faced.
IEB+ Argentina Open
The home crowd in Buenos Aires said goodbye to one of their favorites, as Spaniard Pedro Martinez beat Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-2, marking the final match of Schwartzman’s professional career.
Schwartzman, 32, planned to make his hometown tournament his final event before retiring. The former World No. 8 upset seventh seed Nicolas Jarry of Chile on Wednesday to extend his run. He saved one match point late in the day before falling to Martinez.
Brazil’s Joao Fonseca rallied past Argentine lucky loser Federico Coria 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, while the two remaining matches still in progress featured some top seeds. No. 2 seed Holger Rune of Denmark was squaring off against Argentina’s Mariano Navone and No. 3 seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy was slated to face France’s Corentin Moutet.
Delray Beach Open
No. 6 seed Brandon Nakashima rallied past fellow American Reilly Opelka 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals in Florida.
Opelka had 17 aces to Nakashima’s 14, but Nakashima’s serve only got better as the match wore on. He won 16 of 17 total service points in the third set, while Opelka only went 14-for-28.
The other three matches still on tap Thursday pitted No. 8 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain against American wild card Mackenzie McDonald; No. 4 seed Matteo Arnaldi of Italy against American wild card Learner Tien; and top seed Taylor Fritz of the U.S. against China’s Yunchaokete Bu.
–Field Level Media
