AMERICAN young gun Ben Shelton showed a deep run at the US Open and then busy Laver Cup schedule has not slowed him down, winning back-to-back matches at the Japan Open Tennis Championships on Friday. Shelton is the reigning champion at the ATP 500 event in the nation’s capital, and is now back into the last eight.

Stepping out in the Colosseum in singles first, the eighth seed was able to overcome Argentinian Mariano Navone before only a short break, change and returning to the court in the next match with Jordan Thompson to win the pair’s doubles Round of 16 match.

Now into the final eight in both formats, Shelton was able to win through in straight sets across both, with a 6-4 6-3 victory over the 40th ranked Navone an important obstacle to reach the last eight. In the match, Shelton served five aces and won a massive 78 per cent of his first serve points off a 72 per cent clip, while breaking even off his second serve.

Navone was able to capitalise on one break of serve from four chances, but Shelton’s ability to convert three of five proved the difference in the straight sets result. If Shelton is able to continue his unbeaten run in Japan (7-0 currently) then he will become the first player since Pete Sampras in 1993-94.

“I thought Mariano [Navone] was playing really well today and made things difficult,” Shelton said post-match. “It was a great match, a different feel compared to my first round, I feel like I’m really coming into form here.

“I thought I did a great job adjusting today, the ball was bouncing much lower and although this is my seventh singles match in Tokyo, it was the first time I played with the roof closed. There’s always going to be new challenges and weather issues. We’re lucky we have a roof here and we’re not sitting around waiting for the weather to clear up.”

Shelton will face fellow rising star Arthur Fils in the quarter finals after he won through despite losing the first set against Italian Matteo Berrettini. The former Top 10 Italian had to retire injury when 7-6 up allowing the Frenchman safe passage into the last eight.

The other two matches that took place saw Brit Jack Draper defeat Pole Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets 6-4 6-4, while Frenchman Ugo Humbert joined Fils in the quarter finals with a 6-3 6-2 triumph over in-form American Brandon Nakashima.

AROUND THE WORLD

Over in Beijing there was a stack of Spaniard in action with a mixed bag of results for the nation. World number three Carlos Alcaraz defeated big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, while Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Roberto Bautista Agut both won, while Pablo Carreno Busta and Roberto Carballes Baena fell to Russian duo Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov respectively.

In the all-Chinese battle, Yunchaokete Bu upset 19-year-old talent Juncheng Shang who was coming off his first ATP Tour career title at the Chengdu Open, 6-7 6-2 6-4. Daniil Medvedev was too good for French veteran Gael Monfils 6-3 6-4, while Lorenzo Musetti, Francisco Cerundolo and Roman Safiullin also won on the day.