Vatutin and Ouahab pull off shocks in Marrakech
Alexey Vatutin had never played an ATP World Tour event before this week, but he is through to the last eight in Marrakech.
Published : Apr 12, 2018 11:34 IST
Qualifier Alexey Vatutin stunned top seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas to reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II and home outsider Lamine Ouahab upset Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Vatutin, playing his first ATP World Tour event, sent the Spaniard packing in Marrakech with a surprise 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 victory on Wednesday.
The 160-ranked Russian broke world number 23 Ramos-Vinolas five times and will face now Pablo Andujar, who thrashed Andrea Arnaboldi 6-0 6-2.
Wildcard Ouahab also pulled off a major surprise, beating third seed Kohlschreiber 2-6 6-0 7-6 (7-3) in the first round.
The 33-year-old Ouahab was playing his first main draw match on the ATP World Tour for two years and the world number 617 made up for lost time on home soil, breaking last year's finalist four times to advance.
Richard Gasquet moved into the last eight with a 6-2 6-4 success over the 2014 champion Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Gilles Simon was another Frenchman to go through at the expense of Roberto Carballes Baena.
Radu Albot and Malek Jaziri came through their first-round encounters on day three.