Canada’s Denis Shapovalov rode his first serve to a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over fourth-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States in the second round of the Erste Bank Open on Wednesday in Vienna, Austria.
In a matchup of the world’s 19th-ranked player (Shapovalov) and the world’s 10th-ranked player, the Canadian won 29 of 33 points on his first serve, including 12 of 13 in the decisive third set.
Shapovalov’s quarterfinal opponent will be Great Britain’s Daniel Evans, who cruised past Russia’s Karen Khachanov 6-2, 6-2.
The rest of the day’s action was the conclusion of the first round. Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia, second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, sixth-seeded Jannik Sinner of Italy and the United States’ Marcos Giron all won in straight sets.
Swiss Indoors Basel
French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech continued his strong form, beating Slovakia’s Alex Molcan 6-2, 6-4 to earn a quarterfinal berth at Basel, Switzerland.
Rinderknech reached the semifinals in his most recent event, earlier this month in Gijon, Spain, after getting to the quarterfinals in his prior two tournaments.
Only two other second-round matches were contested on Wednesday, and top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and fifth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta set up an all-Spanish quarterfinal. Alcaraz rolled past the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-2, and Carreno Busta beat Swiss wild-card entrant Dominic Stricker 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4.
First-round winners on Wednesday were third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, French qualifier Ugo Humbert, Denmark’s Holger Rune and Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
–Field Level Media
