VIENNA, October 23, 2019
Matteo Berrettini and Karen Khachanov are the first two players to reach the quarterfinals of the Erste Bank Open. Berrettini won two tie-breaks to overcome Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6(5), 7-6(1) on Wednesday afternoon.
The No. 3 seed from Italy hit 36 winners and outpointed his rival 82-72 in one hour and 50 minutes. Berrettini will next take on the winner of the encounter between Hyeon Chung of South Korea and recent Moscow champion Andrey Rublev, who opened his Vienna campaign with a hard-fought 6-1, 6-7(3), 7-6(6) victory over lucky loser Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan.
Two spots remain for the year-end Nitto ATP Finals next month. Though nobody can qualify this week, opportunity awaits contenders in both Vienna and Basel after ATP Race to London No. 7 Alexander Zverev lost on Tuesday. The German can be passed by No. 8 Berrettini if he wins the Erste Bank Open title.
A SMASHING performance 💥
Berrettini powers on in Vienna, defeating Dimitrov in straight sets 💪
🎥: @TennisTV | @ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/e7TIJ4eJ16
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 23, 2019
Later in the evening, Khachanov benefited from the retirement of Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics. The No. 2 seed from Russia was leading 6-3, 4-6, 4-1 when Fucsovics was forced to stop playing due to nausea. Khachanov will oppose either No. 5 seed Diego Schwartzman from Argentina or US-American Sam Querrey in the stage of the final eight.
