The Winston-Salem Open witnessed an American teenage rush to the fore, spearheaded by Alex Michelsen. Wednesday belonged to him as he dominated Belgian Zizou Bergs, 6-1, 6-2. Christopher Eubanks and Rinky Hijikata, meanwhile, both found a way through after saving two match points, as did Learner Tien. Ranked No. 52 in the ATP Rankings, the 11th-seeded Michelsen reached his sixth quarterfinal of the season. He did not drop a game, defending all three break points against him in the first set, and lost just three points behind his first serve in the second. Michelsen will face Eubanks next, who fought back to beat 17th seed Roman Safiullin 6-3, 1-6, 7-6. Eubanks, who turns 20 on Sunday, is second in the ATP Live Race To Jeddah and looking to qualify for a second consecutive Next Gen ATP Finals in December. Michelsen did not advance beyond the round-robin stage a year ago.
Michelsen's friend, Learner Tien, extended his dream debut week on the ATP Tour by becoming the youngest American tour-level quarterfinalist since Brandon Nakashima in 2020 (Delray Beach). The 18-year-old defeated Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-4, 6-3 and has kept on rolling from qualifying. After winning his first tour-level match in the opening round, Tien will face former World No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarterfinals. As a result of his weekend success, Tien leaps two places to eighth in the ATP Live Race To Jeddah and will make his debut inside the Top 200 of the ATP Rankings on Monday. He's been midst of a solid summer showing on North American hard courts, taking his first ATP Challenger Tour title in July in addition to four ITF M15 trophies.
Twenty-eight-year-old Eubanks fought off match points at 5/6 and 7/8 in the deciding-set tie-break to stay alive. He struck 16 aces but more importantly saved nine of the 11 break points he conceded, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Eubanks turned around a loss to Safiullin a week ago, when Safiullin beat him in the quarters of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Cary, North Carolina—a tournament Eubanks had lost. Eubanks is now 1-0 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head against Michelsen, having defeated the latter in Mallorca on his way to the ATP 250 title.
Joining him will be Australian Rinky Hijikata, who also fought off two match points to make the quarterfinals, recovering from a set and a break down to defeat semi-finalist of last year Borna Coric, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, reeling off four straight games from 3-5 in the final set.
Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta, the 2016 champion, dismissed Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to record his sixth Winston-Salem quarter-final from eight appearances. Thus, he edged past Steve Johnson for the most match wins – 18 – in the history of the tournament. Former World No. 7 David Goffin moved through due to a 6-3, 6-3 win over France's Arthur Rinderknech. The 15th seed Pavel Kotov ended American lucky loser Zachary Svajda's run with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
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