Tiafoe converts sixth match point, survives late-night scare

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a survived a late-night scare from a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jiri-lehecka/l0bv/overview'Jiri Lehecka/a at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/cincinnati/422/overview'Cincinnati Open/a, where the American prevailed 6-4, 6-7(10), 7-6(5) after converting his sixth match point on Friday./p

pThe home favourite let slip three match points in the second-set tie-break and then held a 5-2 lead in the final set. But Lehecka, who was competing this week for the first time since retiring in the Madrid semi-finals due to a back injury, won three consecutive games and eventually forced a deciding-set tie-break./p

pTiafoe, who trailed by a mini-break at 2/4 in the third-set tie-break, let out a sigh of relief after clinching the match and wrote, 'Whatever it takes' on the camera lens. He improved to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Lehecka and advanced to the quarter-finals after two hours, 52 minutes./p

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pThe 26-year-old found an advantage in forehand-to-forehand rallies to remain the more consistent from the baseline. Tiafoe committed 34 unforced errors to Lehecka's 59, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The three-time tour-level titlist overcame the Czech's 24 aces and will next meet another big server, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hubert-hurkacz/hb71/overview'Hubert Hurkacz/a, in the last eight./p

pLehecka, 22, was aiming to build upon his second-round upset against fourth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniil-medvedev/mm58/overview'Daniil Medvedev/a./p

pstrongDid You Know?/strongbr /

An American male has not won the Cincinnati title since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-roddick/r485/overview'Andy Roddick/a in 2006. Tiafoe and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ben-shelton/s0s1/overview'Ben Shelton/a, placed in opposite halves, are the lone Americans left in the draw./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p