German 20-year-old Next Gen player Alexander Zverev secured his spot in the quarter final of the China Open in Beijing with a commanding 6-4 6-2 win over Italian Fabio Fognini in one hour and 13 minutes.
Fognini held his service game at deuce after saving three break points from 0-40 in the opening game of the first set. Zverev had to save two break points at deuce before holding his first service game for 1-1. Zverev converted his first break opportunity in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead in the fifth game. Fognini pulled the break back on his first chance to draw level to 4-4. Zverev got his second break in the ninth game to take the 5-4 lead, as Fognini made a double fault, before securing his first set point in the next game.
In the third set Zverev converted his third break point at deuce to take a 2-1 lead and consolidated it in the next game. The young German went up a double break in the fifth game after Fognini made a double fault and held his next two service games to seal the second set on his first match point by 6-2.
Russian 19-year-old Next Gen player Andrey Rublev fought back from one set and one break down to beat 2011 Beijing champion Tomas Berdych after 1 hour and 48 minutes. Berdych had won their only previous head-to-head match against Rublev in Miami last spring. Berdych faced three break points in the opening game of the first set but saved them. Rublev dropped his serve in the second game and did not convert another break point. Berdych broke serve in the sixth game to cruise through to a 6-1 win in the first set.
Berdych went up a break in the third game to build up a 6-1 3-1 lead. Rublev broke back to love in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. After a trade of breaks in the seventh and eighth games Rublev held his serve to love for 5-4 before sealing the second set with his third consecutive break in the 10th game for 6-4. Rublev got two consecutive breaks in the fourth and sixth games to race out to a 5-1 lead and served out on his first match point.
Rublev went down 1-6 1-3 but bounced back by winning 11 of the next 13 games to take the win. Berdych fended off a break point to hold serve in the fourth game of the second set but Rublev got three consecutive breaks to turn around the match. The young Russian player has clinched his third win against a top-20 player after beating Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin at this year’s US Open.
