ECKENTAL, November 2, 2016

Australian teenager Alex De Minaur continued his great run at the €35,000 Bauer Watertechnology Cup in Eckental on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-3 second round victory over Federico Gaio of Italy.

The 17-year-old Alicante resident won 76 per cent of his first service points and broke his opponent’s serve four times to advance to his first quarterfinal at Challenger level in one hour and 20 minutes. De Minaur had battled through the qualifying, playing on carpet for the very first time, and celebrated his first match win on the ATP Challenger Tour on Tuesday. The Sydney native debuted on the ATP rankings in August 2015 at No.1544 and is the current world No. 546.

Here you can find out more about De Minaur

De Minaur will next face either Austrian veteran Jürgen Melzer or Tobias Kamke. The 30-year-old German took out Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia, winning 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 32 minutes in the last match of the day.

Franko Skugor (photo: Bertram Wagner)

Matthias Bachinger also found his way into the stage of the final eight, easing past Mohamed Safwat of Egypt 6-4, 6-0. The 29-year-old German wild card sent down five aces and saved the only break point he faced to finish the encounter in only 66 minutes. Bachinger awaits the winner of the match between sixth seed Steve Darcis from Belgium and local hero Maximilian Marterer.

Franko Skugor defeated Austrian lucky loser David Pichler 6-1, 7-5, The 29-year-old Croat sent down six aces, saved all of the three break points he faced, converting four of his own to finish the encounter in one hour and 17 minutes. Skugor will next take on either German top seed Florian Mayer or wild card Yannick Hanfmann. The latter overame Sergiy Stakhovsky from the Ukraine, rallying 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 52 minutes.