Newport - Arab Today
French fifth seed Adrian Mannarino put in a long day to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on the grass courts of Newport.
In a match disrupted by rain on Tuesday, Mannarino returned to dispatch German veteran Tommy Haas 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, then turned around to beat compatriot Edouard Roger-Vasselin 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Mannarino earned a quarter-final clash with American Rajeev Ram, who followed up his first-round upset of top-seeded John Isner with a 6-4, 6-3 second-round victory over Japan's Yuichi Sugita.
Ram, the world number 161 who won his lone ATP title at Newport in 2009, fired seven aces and won 85 percent of his second serve points in the 67-minute encounter. He didn't face a break point and converted all three of his break chances against the 144th-ranked Sugita.
"I guess I was executing pretty well," Ram said. "It's a good thing if you can frustrate your opponent."
Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia advanced, blasting 29 aces past Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win.
Karlovic will have to wait to learn his last-eight foe, after rain halted play in the second-round match between sixth-seeded Sam Querrey and Dustin Brown as the Americans battled in the third set.
Australian John-Patrick Smith needed just 54 minutes to get past local favorite Jared Donaldson 6-3, 6-1. Smith, who beat wild card compatriot Bernard Tomic in the first round, converted five of 12 break chances en route to the win.
He next faces Japan's Tatsuma Ito, who upset seventh-seeded American Steve Johnson 6-4, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded American Jack Sock rallied to beat Slovakian Lukas Lacko 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 and set up a quarter-final clash with Czech Jan Hernych, who saved a match point en route to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (9/7) victory over Colombian Alejandro Falla.
Source: AFP