Is that this the week Felix Auger-Aliassime finds his kind?
The Canadian backed up his first-round win in opposition to Aleksandar Vukic with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph in opposition to Sebastian Ofner on the Kinoshita Group Japan Open Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
Auger-Aliassime arrived in Tokyo having received simply twice in his previous 11 outings. The final time he received consecutive matches was in Indian Wells in March, when he reached the quarter-finals.
The 23-year-old ensured that run would finish in Japan, although, producing a clean-hitting show to down Ofner after one hour and 35 minutes. Auger-Aliassime rallied from a break down in a decent first set earlier than he raced away within the second set, successful the ultimate six video games of the match.
Into his fifth tour-level quarter-final of the season, the World No. 17 will subsequent face second seed Casper Ruud or American Marcos Giron.
In first-round motion, Zhang Zhizhen earned revenge in opposition to Hubert Hurkacz. The Pole defeated Zhang en path to the title in Shanghai final week, however the Chinese language star ensured historical past wouldn’t repeat itself on the ATP 500 hard-court occasion.
Zhang fired 10 aces, received 76 per cent (39/51) of his first-serve factors and broke Hurkacz’s serve 3 times to advance 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) in two hours and 17 minutes.
Hurkacz rose to eleventh within the Pepperstone ATP Stay Race To Turin following the run to his second ATP Masters 1000 title in Shanghai. The Pole is 335 factors behind eighth-placed Holger Rune, who at the moment occupies the ultimate qualification spot. His defeat is a serious dent to his Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes.
The 27-year-old Zhang is having fun with the very best season of his profession, having earned 19 tour-level wins. He turned the primary ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finalist from China in Could in Madrid and in July rose to No. 52 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the best place ever held by anybody from the East Asian nation. He beat Casper Ruud on the US Open to develop into the primary Chinese language man to beat a Prime 5 opponent.
Aiming to make extra waves this week, he’ll subsequent face Aslan Karatsev.
Tommy Paul saved alive his Nitto ATP Finals qualification hopes with a 6-4, 6-2 win in opposition to Mackenzie McDonald. The American is twelfth within the Pepperstone ATP Stay Race To Turin, 515 factors behind Rune. If Paul wins his first title of the season this week, he might rise to ninth if his direct rivals fall early in Tokyo.
Paul has now earned 39 wins this 12 months, matching his earlier personal-best tally (2022). He’ll purpose to make it 40 wins when he performs Ben Shelton or Jordan Thompson within the quarter-finals.
