No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia had little trouble defeating French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 6-4 in the Round of 16 at the Open 13 Provence on Thursday in Marseille, France.
Medvedev had an automatic bye into the second round and played his first match of the week Thursday. He won 39 of his 49 service points, including an overwhelming 26 of 29 on his first serve (89.7 percent), and saved the only break point he faced against Herbert.
Medvedev’s quarterfinal opponent will be Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff, who outlasted French qualifier Hugo Grenier 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
A pair of seeded players also fell Thursday, as China’s Zhizhen Zhang beat No. 4 seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3, and Belgium’s Zizou Bergs took down No. 8 seed Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2. Bergs had 13 aces and saved both break points he faced.
IEB+ Argentina Open
The home fans in Buenos Aires said goodbye to one of their favorites, as Spaniard Pedro Martinez beat Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-2, 6-2 in the second round, marking the final match of Schwartzman’s professional career.
Schwartzman, 32, planned to make his hometown tournament his final event before retiring. The former World No. 8 upset seventh seed Nicolas Jarry of Chile on Wednesday to extend his run. He saved one match point late in the day before falling to Martinez.
The crowd did get to cheer on another Argentine to an upset win, as Mariano Navone beat second-seeded Holger Rune of Denmark 6-1, 7-6 (2). Third-seeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy eliminated France’s Corentin Moutet 6-2, 6-3, and Brazil’s Joao Fonseca rallied past Argentine lucky loser Federico Coria 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Delray Beach Open
No. 6 seed Brandon Nakashima rallied past fellow American Reilly Opelka 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals in Florida.
Opelka had 17 aces to Nakashima’s 14, but Nakashima’s serve only got better as the match wore on. He won 16 of 17 total service points in the third set, while Opelka only went 14-for-28.
In other second-round action, No. 8 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain pulled away from American wild-card entrant Mackenzie McDonald for a 6-2, 5-7, 6-0 win.
No. 4 seed Matteo Arnaldi of Italy squeezed past American wild card Learner Tien 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (1). In the last match of the night, top seed Taylor Fritz of the United States served 18 aces in a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over China’s Yunchaokete Bu.
–Field Level Media
