Stefanos Tsitsipas battled past Italian 19-year-old Next Gen player Luca Nardi 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-3) in a hard-fought match after 1 hour and 45 minutes to advance to the quarter finals at the Astana Open.
Nardi did not face a break point in the opening set, which went on serve en route to the tie-break. Tsitsipas went up a double mini-break to take the tie-break 7-2.
The second set went on serve until the 11th game when Nardi earned two break points. Tsitsipas saved the first chance with a cross-court forehand and the second with an ace. The Greek player earned three mini-break to close out the tie-break with a cross-court forehand on the first match point.
Nardi beat former number 7 David Goffin 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-2) in the final round of qualifying last Saturday after saving three match points.
“Nardi is a player who can play well in the future. I was impressed by his level. He was able to maintain that throughout the entire match. There weren’t any holes. I believe today he was able to sustain that level from the beginning to the end. That was extremely impressive”, said Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas has reached his 12th quarter final this season. The Greek player will face either Hubert Hurkacz or Alexander Bublik. The Athens native player is aiming to win his third ATP Tour title this season following Monte-Carlo and Mallorca and his first indoor hard-court trophy since Marseille in February 2020.
Andrey Rublev cruised past Zhang Zhizhen 6-3 6-2 in 89 minutes with a break in the second game of the first set and two breaks in the third and seventh games of the second set .
Rublev converted three of his four break points to improve his indoor hard-court record to 91 minutes. Rublev set up a quarter final match against this year’s Winston Salem champion Adrian Mannarino, who rallied from a set down to beat David Goffin 3-6 6-1 7-5.
Goffin converted his third break in the second game to win the first set 6-3. Mannarino broke twice in the second and sixth games to win the second set 6-1. The third set went on serve in the first eight games before Mannarino earned a break to take a 5-4 lead. Goffin pulled the break back in the 10th game to draw level to 5-5. Mannarino broke for the second time in the 11th game to close out the third set 7-5.
