ILKLEY/STARNBERG, June 16, 2022

Day five at the Ilkley Trophy €134,920 ATP Challenger grass-court event saw players battle hot conditions as well as their opponents with Italian veteran Andreas Seppi shrugging off the challenging conditions to beat Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-4, 7-5.

The 38-year-old from Bolzano capitalized on five of his six break-point chances to advance to the quarterfinals after one hour and 36 minutes. Seppi will next play Zizou Bergs from Belgium, who edged past fellow qualifier Daniel Cox from Great Britain 7-6(2), 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes.

In other second-round action on Thursday, Alexei Popyrin outlasted Sebastian Ofner from Austria 6-7(2), 7-6(4), 7-6(5). The Australian lucky loser fired 16 aces and won 70 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in two hours and 26 minutes.

Up next for Popyrin is Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer. The World No. 223 knocked out No. 4 seed John Millman from Australia 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 11 minutes.

Brits prevail in doubles

Two British doubles pairings advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP Challenger 125 event. Julian Cash and Henry Patten continued their recent run of form by defeating US-Americans Nicholas Monroe and Max Schnur 6-2, 6-1. Later in the day, Aidan McHugh and Luke Johnson beat French pairing Lucas Pouille and Constant Lestienne 6-4, 4-6, 10-7.

“I think we got off to a really good start which helped us. I mean, they’re two very well-established singles players so we knew we had to assert ourselves on the court early and we did that. We also knew that there would be twists and turns so it was good to get through,” said Johnson.