Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the top seed, advanced to the quarter-finals of the Chengdu Open by edging out Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (4) at the Sichuan International Tennis Center on Saturday.
It took Musetti two hours, 40 minutes to take out O’Connell, who remained in the lead for the majority of the match.
The Australian started tough by clinching the opener in the tiebreaker. Musetti struck back in the second set to level the proceedings but soon found himself close to an exit when O’Connell broke him in eighth game of the third set to serve for match.
The world No 19 was then required to dig deep and he did to take the third set into a tiebreaker. He eventually closed the fight by converting the first match point he created.
Musetti, ranked No 19, will play Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, the No 5 seed, next.
O’Connell, ranked No 75, beat Russian Pavel Kotov (6-4, 7-5) in the previous round of the Chengdu tournament.
Chengdu ATP 250, other second-round results (Sichuan International Tennis Center, hard, USD 1.171.655, most recent results first):
Jannik Sinner celebrates after defeating Taylor Fritz in the men's singles final of the 2024 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tenni
Overall, 2024 marks his first season without a title since 2017 – when he had zero career titles. After his round-robin match v Sin
Frances Tiafoe has been fined $120,000 (almost £95,000) for swearing repeatedly at umpire Jimmy Pinoargote after receiving a time violation during last month
TURIN, Italy — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner became the first player to advance to the semifinals at the ATP Finals. U.S. Open