Sydney wildcard Christopher O’Connell has marched into the quarter-finals of the Adelaide Worldwide however South Australian Alex Bolt’s desires of a house fairytale have been denied emphatically by prime seed Tommy Paul.
Key factors:
- Alex Bolt was cheered on by his house crowd, however was solidly overwhelmed by Tommy Paul
- Christopher O’Connell thumped Alexander Shevchenko with out dealing with a break level
- O’Connell took a break from tennis in 2018 to wash boats
O’Connell hardly broke sweat in trouncing Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday to e book a date with third seed Sebastian Korda within the remaining eight at Memorial Drive.
O’Connell, who briefly retired from the game to wash boats in 2018 following a spate of accidents, whizzed 12 aces previous his Russian opponent and did not face a break level.
Bolt, a quarter-finalist at Adelaide in 2020 and cheered on by a parochial house crowd, was unable to observe O’Connell’s lead, totally outclassed by world quantity 13 Paul 6-3, 6-2.
“I could not have requested for a greater match,” mentioned Paul, who will play Jack Draper for a berth within the semi-finals.
“I believed I performed a extremely clear match. I am actually excited to get the season began. I am excited to be again out right here.”
Draper, who beat Paul in final yr’s Adelaide Worldwide, superior after surviving a drama-filled 5-7, 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (9/7) marathon towards Serb Miomir Kecmanovic.
He saved two match factors within the second set earlier than overcoming a 2-5 deficit within the third-set tiebreak to prevail in three hours, 39 minutes.
Play was halted for a number of minutes in the course of the deciding set with Kecmanovic refused to play till a supervisor was referred to as out.
He was irate at being denied a medical time-out whereas additionally being on the incorrect finish of a controversial name, with the umpire ruling a ball that bought caught within the web tape in Draper’s favour to place the Englishman up 6-5.
Earlier, second seed Nicolas Jarry saved a match level in his tense 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 victory over Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
Jarry, who additionally got here again from match factors down towards the identical opponent final season in Beijing, fell behind 6-7 within the breaker with two Arnaldi serves to come back earlier than the large Chilean rattled off the following three factors and maintained that top degree within the third.
Korda superior with a hard-fought 6-4, 7-6 (12/10) win towards Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.
AAP
