ATP roundup: Murray reaches quarters with late-night win

[August 03, 2018]  Andy Murray worked overtime on the overnight shift in Washington to reach his first tournament quarterfinal since last summer.

The veteran Scotsman, who underwent hip surgery in January, edged Romania's Marius Copil 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (4) in a third-round match at the Citi Open that started at midnight and ended at 3:02 a.m. ET on Friday.

The result left Murray crying into his towel on the sideline after match point.

After reaching the quarters at Wimbledon in 2017, Murray missed the rest of last season due to his hip. Following the operation, he returned to appear in just two minor tournaments last month before pulling out of Wimbledon and then entering Washington.

His quarterfinal opponent will be Australia's Alex de Minaur, who beat eighth-seeded Hyeon Chung of South Korea 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the third round.

Much earlier Thursday, 6-foot-10 American John Isner, ranked ninth in the world and seeded second, fell 6-4, 7-6 (6) to wild-card entrant Noah Rubin in the second round.

Isner was coming off his fifth career Atlanta Open title last weekend. He came into this tournament seeded behind only Germany's Alexander Zverev, who beat brother Mischa Zverev 6-3, 7-5 on Thursday.

"I was just grinding every point out, making sure that I capitalized on the points that I didn't do at the French Open," Rubin, an American who lost to Isner in straight sets at Roland Garros, told the media afterward. "I was really keen on those big moments, and just had fun with it."

Rubin played a second match later in the day, falling to 16th-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2. With weather pushing some of the tournament back, some players were forced to play doubleheaders.

Third-seeded David Goffin of Belgium, seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, 10th-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and American Denis Kudla also moved into the quarterfinals.

Britain's Andy Murray during practice REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Generali Open

The clay-court tournament in Kitzbuhel, Austria, is down to its final four, and no seeded players remain.

Qualifiers Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and Martin Klizan of Slovakia made sure of that. Istomin topped sixth-seeded Maximilian Marterer of Germany 6-3, 6-3 (a round after upsetting second-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber), and Klizan stopped No. 8 seed Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2. A round earlier, Klizan beat top-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria.

Chilean Nicolas Jarry beat Italian Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 6-3, and Spain's Jaume Munar beat Japan's Taro Daniel 7-6 (3), 6-3 to round out the semifinal field.

Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel

The semifinals in Los Cabos, Mexico, will hold much closer to form, as the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds advanced on the hardcourt.

Top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro or Argentina blitzed Egor Gerasimov of Belarus 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

Second-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy beat Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 6-2, 6-2, and No. 3 seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina topped American Michael Mmoh 6-2, 6-3.

Fourth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France did lose, however, falling to Great Britain's Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4.

--Field Level Media

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.