Second-seeded Ben Shelton showed his resolve on Thursday, rallying for a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4 victory over France’s Ugo Humbert to advance to the quarterfinals of the Mubadala DC Open in Washington.
Shelton hit just 62.2% of his first serves but navigated his serve well regardless, winning 70.4% of his service points overall and getting broken just once in six chances. With the win, the top-ranked American (No. 8 in the world) is through to his eighth tour-level quarterfinal of the season, third-most among ATP competitors. He’ll face Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, who beat Terence Atmane of France 6-3, 7-6 (6), for a spot in the semifinals.
No. 1 seed Alex de Minaur ran away with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 win over 17-year-old qualifier Cruz Hewitt, the son of two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt, in an all-Australian affair.
U.S. competitor Brandon Nakashima outlasted No. 7 seed Czech Jakub Mensik for a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4 win to set up a quarterfinal clash against de Minaur.
Mifel Tennis Open
France’s Arthur Gea overcame losing a marathon first-set tiebreaker and advanced to reach his first career ATP Tour semifinal, upsetting third-seeded Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (11), 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Gea, ranked 127th in the world, won 77.8% of his service points in the last two sets, including 22 of 24 (91.2%) on his first serve. That came after Gea squandered four set points in the opening-set tiebreaker.
Next up for Gea will be another player competing in his initial tour semifinal, Hong Kong’s Coleman Wong, who topped Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
Eighth-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada downed the Czech Republic’s Dalibor Svrcina 6-4, 6-2. Shapovalov’s semifinal opponent will be the winner of the late Thursday quarterfinal featuring fifth-seeded Cameron Norrie of Great Britain and Bernard Tomic of Australia.
–Field Level MediaATP roundup: Ben Shelton rallies to reach DC quarterfinals
