Tenth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas dug deep to beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (1-7) 6-4 6-2 in 2 hours and 21 minutes reaching the quarter final at the Paris Rolex Masters for the fourth time in his career.
Tsitsipas has climbed to 11th in the ATP Live Race to Turin. The Greek player will need to reach the final in Paris Bercy to stay in contention for a spot in the ATP Finals.
Tsitsipas has beaten Cerundolo for the second time in as many weeks after beating the Argentine player in the first round at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
Cerundolo was not able to convert all three of the break points he created in the opening set. After trading mini-breaks in the tie-break Cerundolo won six consecutive points with three mini-breaks to claim the tie-break 7-1.
Tsitsipas earned his first break in the third game of the second set to take a 2-1 lead. Cerundolo saved three break points in the ninth game to hold serve at deuce. Tsitsipas served out the second set with a hold at 15.
Tsitsipas broke twice in a row in the third and fifth games to race out to a 5-1 lead and serve out the win on his second match point.
Tsitsipas will face either Alexander Zverev or French Next Gen Arthur Fils.
Karen Khachanov beat Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 to reach the quarter final in Paris Bercy six years after winning this title in 2018. Both players traded breaks in the first two games of the opening set. Khachanov broke for the second time to take a 3-1 lead, but Popyrin converted his fourth break-back in the fifth game. Popyrin saved two break points to hold serve for 3-3. Khachanov won the tie-break 7-5 with his only mi-break. Khachanov converted his fifth break point in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead and served out on his first match point.
