Carlos Alcaraz battled through a gripping first-set tiebreak to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open with a 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 victory over Matteo Arnaldi on Saturday. The Spaniard will face world No 46 Denis Shapovalov in the last eight, after the Canadian defeated Alejandro Tabilo 7-5 3-6 6-4 in Tokyo. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player After going 2-5 down in the tiebreak, Alcaraz saved four set points before flipping the decider on its head and go 1-0.i.
The world No 3 found another gear in the second set, breaking Arnaldi twice to seal victory. "I just tried to stay there, point after point," Alcaraz said. "I changed how I played until that moment and it worked out.
I'm just happy I got that first set. Matteo was playing great." Elsewhere in Tokyo, Jiri Lehecka came from behind to secure a 5-7 6-4 6-4 win against Ugo Humbert and set up a quarter-final clash against Adolfo Daniel Vallejo Alvarez, who knocked out Italian Matteo Berrettini. At the China Open, US Open champion Alexander Zverev set up a blockbuster quarter-final tie against Novak Djokovic after the German No 1 seed brushed past wildcard Juncheng Shang 6-0 6-3.
After suffering defeat in the second round of the US Open, Alex De Minaur has returned to winning ways, and on Saturday the Australian bested France's Quentin Halys over three sets to set up a last eight tie against Andrey Rublev. A spot in the semi-finals isn't the only thing up for grabs in this match, with both De Minaur and Rublev battling for Race to Turin points, as both look to secure one of the final spots at this year's ATP Finals. Rublev booked his spot in the quarters after he bounced back from a second-set comeback from Roman Safiullin to win 6-2 3-6 6-4.
Daniil Medvedev sealed a straight-sets win over Jan-Lennard Struff, and will face the winner of Francisco Cerundolo's tie against Jakub Mensik. Following her semi-final defeat to Elena Rybakina at the US Open, Coco Gauff returned from a three-week break and booked her spot in the third round at the China Open, with a 7-6(7-4) 4-6 6-2 win over world No 66 Camila Osorio. The two-time Grand Slam champion outlasted the Colombian in a first-set tiebreak, before being broken at 4-5 to concede the following set.
Osorio battled hard in the final exchange, saving two match points, but Gauff would see out the victory and set up a tie against China's Xinran Sun in the next round. Britain's Harriet Dart started strongly in her match against 10th seed Iva Jovic, taking the opening set. However, she keep couldn't her foot on the accelerator, losing the next two sets in a 2-6 6-3 6-3 defeat.
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