Top seed John Millman continued his strong progress in Ningbo as he defeated unseeded Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 7-6, 6-2 in the second round.
Millman was forced to work harder than his first round match with American Mitchell Krueger, against whom he had dropped just three games. Millman edged a tight first set in the tiebreak before the German’s serve fell apart in the second. Gojowczyk won just three points on his serve, winning both his games of the second set by virtue of breaking the Australian.
Millman will face fifth seed Go Soeda of Japan in the quarter-finals. Soeda recovered from his close three-set encounter with Andrea Arnaboldi in the first round, to dismiss qualifier Shuichi Sekiguchi in the second round 6-3, 6-0. The seeded Korean duo of Duckhee Lee and Hyeon Chung reached the quarter-finals with few mishaps, dropping just a combined six games in their respective wins over Daniel Masur and Yibing Wu. Chung will face fellow Korean Cheong-Eui Kim, who has reached the quarter-finals as a lucky loser after Jordan Thompson retired before the tournament due to personal reasons. Kim has taken full advantage of his fortune, defeating Marinko Matosevic and Sadio Doumbia, but is unlikely to have the weapons to seriously trouble the sixth seed.
American Stefan Kozlov dispatched China’s Di Wu 7-6, 6-3 to set up a enticing encounter with the experienced Yen-Tsun Lu. Kozlov broke serve four times in a match lasting just over two hours. Lu negotiated a close straight sets victory over Alexander Kudryavtsev 7-5, 6-4. Dropping serve just once and breaking three times for the win.
Kozlov has bucked the trend of Americans as whilst many of his compatriots have elected to play in the congested American circuit, currently in Las Vegas, Kozlov, along with Krueger has sought to play further afield. His match with Lu will pit a young teenager against one of the most experienced players in the field, and Kozlov could well spring an upset.
