ATP roundup: Spain, Poland advance to ATP Cup semis

[January 06, 2022] Spain and Poland continued their hot play Wednesday to advance to the semifinals of the ATP Cup in Sydney.

The two nations won their respective groups to earn berths in the semis, which begin Friday. They will face each other in the next round.

Leading the way for Spain was Pablo Carreno Busta, who knocked off Serbia's Filip Krajinovic 6-3, 6-4. Carreno Busta had 30 winners in the 80-minute match. His teammate, Roberto Bautista Agut, won 90 percent of his first-serve points in defeating Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-4 as the Spaniards advanced.

In the doubles' portion of the contest between the nations, Serbians Nikola Cacic and Matej Sabanov topped Pedro Martinez and Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-7 (5), 6-3, 10-5. It was the only loss for Spain in the group play.

Poland won Group D, sweeping Argentina behind the play of Hubert Hurkacz and Kamil Majchrzak. Hurkacz needed just 81 minutes to post a 6-1, 6-4 win against Diego Schwartzman. Majchrzak defeated Federico Delbonis 6-3, 7-6 (3) to finish group play at 3-0.

Szymon Walkow and Jan Zielinski completed the sweep for Poland with a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) defeat of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.

Adelaide International 1

Croatian Marin Cilic, the third seed, smashed 16 aces and cashed in on 70.6 percent of his first serves to defeat Thiago Monteiro of Brazil 6-4, 7-6 (3) and move into the quarterfinals in Adelaide, Australia.

Poland's Hubert Hurkacz in action during his group stage match against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman REUTERS/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake

Next up for Cilic is seventh-seeded Laslo Djere of Serbia, who advanced after his opponent, Corentin Moutet of France, was disqualified. Up one set and 4-2 in the second, Moutet took issue with calls from the chair umpire as Djere fought back to win the set 7-5. A steamed Moutet stormed toward the official and let out of a string of obscenities, leading to his disqualification from the tournament.

In other action, Australian wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis breezed past fourth-seeded FrancesTiafoe in the third set to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 on the way to the quarterfinals. Also victorious was Sweden's Mikael Ymer, who topped eighth-seeded Soon-woo Kwon of South Korea 6-3, 6-2.

Melbourne Summer Set

Jaume Munar of Spain defeated former former top-10 player Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-4, 6-4 in opening-round action in Melbourne.

Next up for Munar is lucky loser Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland, who advanced when Benoit Paire of France, the fifth seed, retired for undisclosed reasons while trailing 4-6, 6-3, 5-2.

Other winners were Alex Molcan of Slovakia, who defeated Italian qualifier Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3; Alexei Popyrin of Australia, who eliminated Italy's Stefano Travaglia 7-6 (5), 6-3; and Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis, who beat American Marcos Giron 7-5, 6-4.

--Field Level Media

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