Tiafoe survives thriller in Almaty; Khachanov fires past Virtanen

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/frances-tiafoe/td51/overview'Frances Tiafoe/a dug deep to produce a thrilling comeback win Thursday and advance to the last eight at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/almaty/9410/overview'Almaty Open/a./p

pThe top seed rallied from a set down against qualifier a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-evans/e687/overview'Daniel Evans/a to triumph 6-7(10), 7-6(4), 6-3. Advancing to his 42nd tour-level quarter-final, Tiafoe improved to 6-3 in the pairrsquo;s Lexus ATP Head2Head series./p

pldquo;I just kept going, my serve was a big part of it, I served a lot of aces today,rdquo; said Tiafoe, who slammed down 21 aces in the contest. ldquo;I started coming into the net and taking more risks, instead of being patient in the rallies./p

pldquo;That was tough, I knew it was going to be a battle, so I was well prepared. Irsquo;m just happy to come out with the win.rdquo;/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Top seed had to fight ????a href="https://twitter.com/FTiafoe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@FTiafoe/a | a href="https://twitter.com/ktf_kz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ktf_kz/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AlmatyOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#AlmatyOpen/a a href="https://t.co/U88JfYM2cp"pic.twitter.com/U88JfYM2cp/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1846957873026187591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 17, 2024/a/blockquote

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pIn a first-set tie-break full of pendulum swings, Evans saved two set points before converting the fourth of his own with a trademark backhand winner past Tiafoe. The 26-year-old stood firm and seized his moment in the second-set tie-break before surging to a 4-0 lead in the decider./p

pEvans rattled off three consecutive games to spark hopes of a comeback, but Tiafoe held his nerve to close out the contest in two hours, 39 minutes./p

pTiafoe will next face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/aleksandar-vukic/v832/overview'Aleksandar Vukic/a, who produced a steely performance to upset eighth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/adrian-mannarino/me82/overview'Adrian Mannarino/a 7-6(4), 6-3 and reach his eighth tour-level quarter-final. The Australianrsquo;s serve was particularly clinical in the second set, during which he saved all three of the break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats./p

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pElsewhere, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/karen-khachanov/ke29/overview'Karen Khachanov/a claimed a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) win against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/otto-virtanen/v0am/overview'Otto Virtanen/a to book his spot in the last eight. After trailing 2-5 in the second set, Virtanen clawed his way back to force a tie-break, but it was the third seed who pounced to seal victory in straight sets./p

pKhachanov, the former No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings, showcased his experience in a battle of two big hitters. He won 88 per cent (37/42) of points behind his first delivery and struck 21 winners in the one-hour and 36-minute contest./p

pThe 28-year-old set up a clash with Kazakh wild card a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/beibit-zhukayev/z09z/overview'Beibit Zhukayev/a, who advanced to his maiden tour-level quarter-final after a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-machac/m0fh/overview'Tomas Machac/a was forced to retire in the fifth game./p

p[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p