Halle: World number one Daniil Medvedev defeated Ilya Ivashka for the second time in six days to reach the Halle grasscourt quarter-finals on Thursday.
Medvedev triumphed 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 over the 42nd-ranked Ivashka having also got the better of the Belarusian in the quarter-finals at Halle’s-Hertogenbosch last week.
Top seed Medvedev fought off three set points at 4-5 in the opening set before going on to clinch it in a tie-break.
The second set was far more straightforward with the 26-year-old Russian wrapping up victory in one hour and 36 minutes.
Medvedev next faces seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut or qualifier Tallon Griekspoor for a place in the semi-finals.
Halle is a warm-up event for Wimbledon but Medvedev and his fellow Russian and Belarusian players won’t be there after being banned following the invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, reigning Queen’s champion Matteo Berrettini needed three sets to see off Denis Kudla as he reached the quarter-finals of the grasscourt tournament on Thursday.
Berrettini won 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 but the victory was anything but straightforward for the 26-year-old.
The Italian fell behind as his American opponent took a tight first set before Berrettini, beaten in last year’s Wimbledon singles final by Novak Djokovic, edged a second set tie-breaker.
Berrettini then broke serve in the ninth game of the deciding set before he served out for the match after a draining two hours and 47 minutes on a sun-drenched centre court at Queen’s, in south-west London.
World No 10 Berrettini will now play Tommy Paul in the semi-finals after the American’s emphatic 6-1, 6-4 defeat of three-time Grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka.
The 37-year-old Wawrinka missed most of 2021 with a foot injury that required two surgeries and the Swiss player, now a lowly 290 in the world rankings, is trying to work his way back to form.
Berrettini’s success means there are at least two seeds still involved in the Wimbledon warm-up event following Marin Cilic’s win on Wednesday.
Rank outsider Ryan Peniston also remains involved, with the last British player left in the draw continuing a memorable week in front of his home crowd thanks to a three-set win over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.
The 26-year-old, playing in his first ATP Tour main draw, had already knocked out world number five and French Open finalist Casper Ruud on Tuesday.
And Peniston, a lowly 180 in the rankings prior to this week, was at it again with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 win in two hours over Cerundolo that saw him into the last eight.
