Second seed and home favourite Alexander Zverev advanced to the quarterfinals of the Halle Open with a straight-sets victory against American Steve Johnson on Thursday. Zverev took the first set 6-3 but was made to work hard in the second set by world No. 76 Stevens, before clinching it 7-5.
World No. five Zverev, who is playing despite a minor knee injury that he suffered in the first round, will face David Goffin who beat Radu Albot 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the next round.
Roberto Bautista Agut set up a potential quarterfinal clash against Roger Federer. Bautista beat Richard Gasquet 6-1, 6-4 in the round of 16 and will take on the winner of the clash between Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the next round.
Seventh seed Bautista, who reached the semifinals in Halle last year before pulling out with injury, has never beaten Federer and has won just one set from their eight meetings.
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Italy's Matteo Berrettini, who won the Stuttgart Open last week, pulled off a comeback win against compatriot Andreas Seppi in their round of 16 clash at Halle. Berrettini won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal clash against Karen Khachanov who overcame Jan-Lennard Struff in three sets on Wednesday.
Queen's Club
Defending champion Marin Cilic, last year's Wimbledon runner-up Kevin Anderson and seventh seed Stan Wawrinka bowed out of the Queen's Club Championships.
Cilic was defeated in straight sets (4-6, 4-6) by Argentine Diego Schwartzman who is making his first Queen's appearance. Second seed Kevin Anderson battled back from a set down to Gilles Simon but eventually lost 1-6, 6-4, 4-6.
Seventh seed Wawrinka won the first set 6-3 against Mahut, but the Frenchman came back with a 7-5 win in the second set. Mahut came from a break down in the deciding set to defeat the three-time Grand Slam champion 3-6, 7-5, 7-6.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the quarter-finals by beating Britain's Kyle Edmund 6-3, 7-5 in his first-round clash that was delayed to due rain before sealing a 4-7 7-6(0) 7-6(4) victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Felix-Auger Aliassime beat Nick Kyrgios 6-7 7-6 7-5 in what was the second match of the day for both players.
Kyrgios, who appeared to be going through the motions in the last two games against the teenaged Canadian, was given a warning for smacking a ball out of the stadium.
Earlier, the controversial Australian had also been warned for unsportsmanlike conduct during a straight-sets defeat of Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena in which he accused a line judge of "rigging" his matches and branded the match officials a disgrace.
(With inputs from AP)
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