Aussies De Minaur, Millman Through To Sofia Quarter-finals

Third-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur saved six of eight break points to beat qualifier Aslan Karatsev of Russia 6-4, 7-6(5) in one hour and 51 minutes on Wednesday for a place in the Sofia Open quarter-finals.

The 21-year-old, who reached the European Open final in Antwerp (l. to Humbert) last month, recovered from 3-5 down in the second set and saved two set points at 4-5, 15/40. He will next play Italian Jannik Sinner or lucky loser Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland.

"I'm obviously very happy with the win today against a very, very tough opponent," said De Minaur. "It was an incredibly tricky match and I’m very happy I was able to get the win and have a good, positive start to my Sofia Open."

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Fifth-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino recorded his 13th match win of the season to overcome Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 6-4, 7-6(6) in one hour and 47 minutes and now challenges Moldovan Radu Albot, who beat top-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the second round on Tuesday.

Sixth-seeded Australian John Millman dug deep to beat Gilles Simon of France 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-2 in three hours and 15 minutes. Millman recovered from 2-4 down in the first set and could not convert two match points at 6-5 in in the second set. The 31-year-old captured his first ATP Tour title at the Astana Open in Nur-Sultan (d. Mannarino) on 1 November. He now faces Canada’s Vasek Pospisil.

“I feel tired now,” said Millman. “I've played with Gilles in Sydney before and hit with him a lot. He is so physical and hard to hit winners against. You know you’re going to be in a bit of a war against him. Gilles uses pace so well and you need to be patient. He feeds off people overplaying and he is so good at closing the court up.”

Second-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner of Italy begin their campaigns at the ATP 250 tournament later today.



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