Seeds fall in America's capital - UBITENNIS
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ATP

Seeds fall in America’s capital

By Cody Fitzpatrick
4 Min Read
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It was a long Thursday at the Washington Open — so long, in fact, that it took up two hours of Friday, as play ended at 2 a.m.

More importantly, though, Dominic Thiem, the top ATP seed, and Kristina Mladenovic, the second WTA seed, were eliminated from the tournament.

Big-serving South African Kevin Anderson had a sizable psychological advantage over Thiem going into their match, as he led their head-to-head history five wins to one.

Thursday, Thiem got his serve broken early by Anderson, and went down 0-3. A long rain delay followed. After play resumed, Anderson rode the solitary break to a 6-3 first-set win.

The second set featured no breaks of serve and went to a tiebreak, which Anderson lost with a forehand that went off the net cord and into the doubles alley, sending the match to a third set.

At 2-2 in the decider, Anderson, down 15-40, shanked a forehand and went down a break. Three breaks and four holds later, the rubber set went to tiebreak. The big man won the breaker — and the match — with an ace out wide.

Anderson’s quarterfinal opponent is world No. 200 Yuki Bhambri, who defeated Guido Pella with a third-set breadstick.

No. 8 seed Jack Sock, who is still looking for his maiden 500-level title, went to a first-set tiebreak with 20-year-old American Jared Donaldson. Donaldson had two set points, but he lost them both, and Sock went on to win the tiebreak 8-6. Sock then won the second set easily — 6-2 — to set up a quarterfinal match with Milos Raonic, who beat Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7),  6-3.

Second seed Kei Nishikori’s victory over Juan Martin del Potro went late into the night, and the gentle giant’s flat forehand and now-signature slice backhand were not able to get the job done.

Nishikori broke first for 3-2 when del Potro netted routine backhand volley. The gentle giant — whose career has been plagued by injuries in recent years — immediately afterward called the trainer for treatment on his back and neck, seeming have trouble moving his head. Still, he managed to hold the rest of his service games that set, although he failed to reciprocate the break. Nishikori took the first set 6-4 and proceeded to win the second 7-5.

Nishikori, in the quarters, plays NextGenner Tommy Paul, who pulled off a stunning 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-3 upset versus Gilles Muller.

Another shocker took place on Grandstand 2, where Australian Open semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov fell 4-6, 2-6 to world No. 50 Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev is set to face Alexander Zverev, who had a painless, albeit late-night, win against Tennys Sandgren.

The biggest surprise on the WTA side of the tournament came when 17-year-old wildcard Canadian Bianca Andreescu notched a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of French Open quarterfinalist Kristina Mladenovic.

On Grandstand 1, Andrea Petkovic and Eugenie Bouchard split their first two sets, but Petkovic bageled Bouchard in the third. This earned her a quarterfinal match with Andreescu,

The top seed, Simona Halep, got through her round-of-16 match versus Mariana Duque-Mariño after losing the first set. The final scoreline was 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. She will play Ekaterina Makarova, who beat Monica Puig  6-2, 6-4.

In the other quarterfinals, Monica Niculescu will play Julia Goerges, and Sabine Lisicki will face Oceane Dodin.

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