Wednesday 10 October 2018 15:25, UK
British No 1 Kyle Edmund is through to the Shanghai Masters last 16 after a convincing 6-3 6-4 victory against Andreas Seppi.
The world No 14, who reached the China Open semi-finals last week, used his trademark hard-hitting baseline game to good effect to defeat the experienced Italian and maintain his encouraging latter season form.
Edmund saw his hopes of a strong run at the Masters 1000 event increase with the surprise exit of fifth seed Marin Cilic on Tuesday and the Briton will next meet Chilean world No 48 Nicolas Jarry.
The 23-year-old, chasing a first ATP Tour title, saved a break point against Seppi in the third game of the match before coming out the better of three consecutive breaks of serve as he took the first set.
Seppi provided further resistance towards the start of the second set as he brought up a break point chance but Edmund saved it before taking command of the match with a break to move 3-2 ahead.
He played better yesterday against (Filip) Krajinovic but there were times today when Kyle would have been delighted with his level. There will also have been times when he would be disappointed he slightly dropped his intensity but crucially he was able to shut the door on a potentially very difficult opponent in [Andreas] Seppi.
Edmund continued to have the upper hand and closed out the match on serve in emphatic fashion with a forehand winner to secure his fifth victory of the Asian swing.
Alexander Zverev fired 12 aces as he defeated China Open champion Nikoloz Basilashvili, who came into the encounter on a six-match winning run, 7-5 6-4.
"Probably the hardest-hitting player I have ever played against," Zverev said about the Georgian.
"I mean, I played all right. I played a solid match. I did everything that I needed to win."
The fourth seed will next face Alex de Minaur after the 19-year-old Australian eased past Benoit Paire 6-4 6-3, with the winner a potential quarter-final opponent for Edmund.
Juan Martin del Potro, whose bid for a third title of the season at the China Open last week was hit by a fever, overcame a stern opening test against Richard Gasquet to win 7-5 7-6 (9-7).
His French opponent had four set points in a second set tiebreak at 6-2 but Del Potro recovered to avoid being taken to a decider.
"It wasn't easy to play for me today, I did what I can. I didn't run too much," Del Potro, who also revealed he had decided to withdraw from last Saturday's China Open semi-final against Fabio Fognini - only for the Italian to pull out before him with an ankle injury, said.
"But of course I would love to feel better, first of all to myself, and then to play tennis, but it's going to be difficult because I'm not taking time to recover 100 percent.
"I'm in Asia, of course I want to play tennis here, but I don't want to put at risk my health also. But I'm going like hour by hour and see how I'm feeling.
"I got lucky that I won, but tomorrow will be a different day. If I have a good night today and I have a good recovery tomorrow morning, maybe I will feel a little bit better for tomorrow night and play better than today."
Stefanos Tsitsipas also booked a hard-fought 6-4 7-6 (10-8) passage through to the last 16 as he secured victory against Karen Khachanov for the second year running in the event.
The world No 15 will meet Kevin Anderson after the two-time Grand Slam finalist beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-2.
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