Tennis: Jabeur, Gauff through to Berlin quarters; Berrettini, Medvedev also reach last 8

Top seed Ons Jabeur and French Open runner-up Coco Gauff both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Berlin WTA grass court tournament on Thursday.

Tunisian Jabeur saved a set point to snuff out the challenge of 169th-ranked American Alycia Parks 6-2, 7-6 (8) to set up a clash with Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich as she targets a fourth semi-final of the season.

“The second set, she started to play much better, and I had to take my chances when I had the break,” said Jabeur.

“It’s tough, I should have taken my chances when I was serving. I knew if it was gonna be 6-5 it would be really tough for me. But I’m glad I stayed calm afterwards.”

Jabeur, the World No 4, won her first tournament on grass in Birmingham last year before reaching the quarterfinals in Wimbledon.

Eighteen-year-old Gauff, the seventh seed, dominated China’s Wang Xinyu 6-0, 6-4 to set up a clash with Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova, a Wimbledon finalist last year.

Berrettini through to quarters

Defending champion Matteo Berrettini needed three sets to see off Denis Kudla as he reached the quarterfinals at the Queen’s Club Championship.

Berrettini won 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 but the victory was anything but straightforward for the 26-year-old.

The Italian fell behind as his American opponent took a tight first set before Berrettini, beaten in last year’s Wimbledon singles final by Novak Djokovic, edged a second set tie-breaker.

Berrettini then broke serve in the ninth game of the deciding set before he served out for the match after a draining two hours and 47 minutes on a sun-drenched centre court at Queen’s, in south-west London.

World No 10 Berrettini will now play Tommy Paul in the semi-finals after the American’s emphatic 6-1, 6-4 defeat of three-time Grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka.

The 37-year-old Wawrinka missed most of 2021 with a foot injury that required two surgeries and the Swiss player, now a lowly 290 in the world rankings, is trying to work his way back to form.

Berrettini’s success means there are at least two seeds still involved in the Wimbledon warm-up event following Marin Cilic’s win on Wednesday.

Rank outsider Ryan Peniston also remains involved, with the last British player left in the draw continuing a memorable week in front of his home crowd thanks to a three-set win over Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo.

The 26-year-old, ranked 180, playing in his first ATP Tour main draw, had already knocked out World No 5 and French Open finalist Casper Ruud on Tuesday.

And Peniston was at it again with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 win in two hours over Cerundolo that saw him into the last eight.

Medvedev marches on in Halle

World No 1 Daniil Medvedev defeated Ilya Ivashka for the second time in six days to reach the Halle Open quarterfinals.

Medvedev triumphed 7-6 (4), 6-3 over the 42nd-ranked Ivashka having also got the better of the Belarusian in the quarterfinals at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week.

Top seed Medvedev fought off three set points at 4-5 in the opening set before going on to clinch it in a tie-break.

The second set was far more straightforward with the 26-year-old Russian wrapping up victory in one hour and 36 minutes.

“He is a great player,” said Medvedev. “He had a lot of bad luck with injuries at the beginning of the season. At the end of last season he was playing really great tennis.

“I’ve known him since I was very young, we actually played each other in Futures, Challengers, and on the ATP Tour. He beat me once in Davis Cup, which is a really important tournament.

“He knows how to play well on grass, so I’m really happy that two times in a row I managed to pass a tough test.”

Medvedev next faces seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the semi-finals.

Halle is a warm-up event for Wimbledon but Medvedev and his fellow Russian and Belarusian players won’t be there after being banned following the invasion of Ukraine.