STOCKHOLM, October 18, 2017

Fabio Fognini advanced to the quarterfinals of the Intrum Stockholm Open with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 win over Swedish No. 1 Elias Ymer on Wednesday afternoon.

The sixth seed from Italy withstood 11 aces and saved one match point in the tie-break of the final set to prevail after two hours and nine minutes.

Fognini is through to the stage of the final eight for the seventh time this season. He is now 35-21 on the season that includes a run to the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad title.

Ymer was hoping to reach the quarterfinal at ATP World Tour-level for the second time.

“It was close but Fabio is a very good player. I tried to keep it up and maybe next year I will do even better,” Ymer told afterwards. Asked about his plans for the future, Ymer said:

“If my ranking allows me to play ATP World Tour events, I will try to play as many as possible. But it all depends on the rankings. Next up could be the ATP Challenger in Brest and then I will prepare for the pre-season and the Australian Open.”

Fernando Verdasco also made it into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over lucky loser Jurgen Zopp. The eighth seeded Spaniard capitalized on four of his eight break poitnt chances to finish the encounter in one hour and 12 minutes. Next up for Verdasco will be either NextGenATP Final contender Hyeon Chung or Kevin Anderson, who is attempting to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals.

Later in the evening, Elias’ younger brother Mikael Ymer fell to fifth seed Mischa Zverev in front of packed stands inside the arena. In the first round match, the World No. 30 from Germany won six points less than the Swedish teenager but was wide awake in the decisive moments to secure a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory in two hours and six minutes. Zverev will next play Viktor Troicki of Serbia.