THREE participants from yesterday’s Round of 32 draw could not contend with fresh legs in the remainder of the Round of 16 at the Erste Bank Open, seeing just fourth seed Daniil Medvedev proceed after playing yesterday. Meanwhile, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov upset Stefanos Tsitsipas, with the Greek third seed the only seed to fall.

Dimitrov’s solid form continued with his upset win over Tsitsipas, only dropping the first set with an unlucky final service game before lifting his game to win the remainder of the match 6-7 6-4 6-3. While Tsitsipas hit 15 aces throughout, Dimitrov remained marginally more effective winning his first serve points (68 per cent winning rate compared 65 per cent) and excelled off his second serve winning 91 per cent of points. Comparatively, Austrian Dominic Thiem dominated against Cristian Garin, downing the Chilean 6-3 6-2 with eight aces and an excellent serving rate.

Medvedev was forced to overcome a tough Vasek Pospisil, who was coming off a high after downing Felix Auger-Aliassime yesterday, as the Russian eventually came away with a 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory. While the two hard-hitters traded aces, finishing with 17 and 14 respectively, Medvedev was far more effective off his second serve winning 65 per cent of points compared to Pospisil’s 35 per cent. While the first set was tight to say the least, Medvedev made every point count after a tight start to the second set to reign supreme. Medvedev’s compatriot Andrey Rublev also came away with a win, although in strange circumstances against Italian wildcard Jannik Sinner after the youngster retired due to a foot injury following the third game of the first set, seeing the two players take the court for less than 10 minutes.

In the final two matches, Lorenzo Sonego defeated Hubert Hurkacz in a tight contest in just under two hours, while Daniel Evans defeated Jurij Rodionov after a close start. Sonego outlasted the higher ranked Hurkacz in a tough 7-6 7-6 battle, with both players relentless but the lucky loser marginally staying ahead with his excellent first serve winning rate (86 per cent). Evans reigned supreme 7-5 6-3, making less unforced errors than his Austrian opposition and winning points off his return games.