Happy in Hamburg! Fils, Rune set quarter-final clash, Zverev stays alive
p Can a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-fils/f0f1/overview'Arthur Fils/a turn consistency into the biggest title of his career at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/hamburg/414/overview'Hamburg Open/a? /p
p The #NextGenATP Frenchman on Thursday booked his spot in the quarter-finals at the clay-court ATP 500 with a 7-6(3), 6-2 triumph against 2023 finalist a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/laslo-djere/db63/overview'Laslo Djere/a. Fils, who himself reached the semi-finals in Hamburg a year ago, has now reached six tour-level quarter-finals this season. /p
p ldquo;Last year he made the final here, so I knew from the start it was going to be a tough match,rdquo; said Fils in his post-match interview. ldquo;Especially the first set, I think we played a great intensity, a lot of rallies. I was feeling OK, but when I was looking at him, he was looking super fresh. At the end I managed to play very good in important moments and Irsquo;m very happy about this win.rdquo; /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr""What a finish, what a point" ????br /
br /
A relentless 7-6(3) 6-2 showing sends No.5 seed a href="https://twitter.com/ArthurFils1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ArthurFils1/a into an 11th ATP quarter-final!a href="https://twitter.com/hamburgopenatp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@hamburgopenatp/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HamburgOpenATP500?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#HamburgOpenATP500/a a href="https://t.co/oVrsYNfBis"pic.twitter.com/oVrsYNfBis/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1813912470622470153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 18, 2024/a/blockquote
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p Fils was in trouble at 4-4, 15/40 in the opening set of his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head clash with Djere. The 20-year-old dug deep to hold serve from there, however, and went on to dominate the first-set tie-break before racing through the second set. /p
p The current leader in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, Fils saved six of seven break points he faced against Djere, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to a one-hour, 46-minute win in hot and humid conditions in Hamburg. Fils is just the fifth man to reach multiple Hamburg quarter-finals before the age of 21, after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mats-wilander/w023/overview'Mats Wilander/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/kent-carlsson/c019/overview'Kent Carlsson/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrei-medvedev/m475/overview'Andrei Medvedev/a. /p
p ldquo;When Irsquo;m practising super hard like Irsquo;m doing, of course I am able to show a great level and great fitness for a few hours,rdquo; reflected Fils, when asked about the physical side of his game. ldquo;If a guy wants to beat me, it has to be tough. I am not going to let the match go.rdquo; /p
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p Awaiting Fils in the last eight will be second seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/holger-rune/r0dg/overview'Holger Rune/a, who enjoyed a straight-sets win of his own against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marco-trungelliti/ta29/overview'Marco Trungelliti/a. /p
p Rune converted three of six break points he earned en route to a 6-4, 6-3 triumph against the Argentine qualifier. With his 80-minute triumph, the second seed became the first Danish man to reach the Hamburg quarter-finals in the Open Era. /p
p /p
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p The 21-year-old Rune was particularly happy to back up his opening win against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/fabian-marozsan/m0ci/overview'Fabian Marozsan/a in Germany, where he is competing for the first time since his a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a run ended with straight-sets fourth-round defeat to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a. /p
p ldquo;Itrsquo;s been very intense since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. I only had one day off, actually,rdquo; said Rune in his on-court interview. "I was like, lsquo;I donrsquo;t want to rest, I want to go straight back to practicersquo;, because I was very disappointed. I went straight back to work on the things that needed to be done, and now I have the chance to train those things in matches.rdquo;
/ppTop seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a kept alive his hopes to defend the ATP 500 title with a topsy-turvy 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory against Frenchman a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hugo-gaston/g09o/overview'Hugo Gaston/a./pp
The home favourite produced superb all-court coverage, chasing down a plethora of Gaston’s drop shots and showing no troubling signs of movement despite still healing from a knee injury suffered at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a. Zverev regrouped after losing the first set on a controversial 30-ball rally, during which the German thought there should have been a double-bounce call./pp
A thrilling deciding set featured five breaks of serve, but it was the 27-year-old who held his nerve in the latter stages, breaking at 5-5 and closing out the win after two hours, 37 minutes. Now tied with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a for most wins on the ATP Tour this season (42), Zverev next meets China’s Zhang Zhizhen, who beat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/flavio-cobolli/c0e9/overview'Flavio Cobolli/a 6-1, 7-6(5)./ppdiv
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p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p