Seppi Sails Into Budapest Quarter-finals

Italian Andreas Seppi, the No. 8 seed at the Gazprom Hungarian Open, was down a set and a break in his first-round match in Budapest. And after surviving that battle, he has rode the momentum on Thursday into his second tour-level quarter-final of the season.

Seppi beat former World No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes, losing just three points on his first serve. Youzhny remains three victories away from No. 500 in his career.

The 34-year-old Seppi’s efforts in Hungary come on the heels of a strong performance last week when in Monte-Carlo, where he qualified before winning two three-setters to advance to the Round of 16 at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, reaching that round for the second time in 12 appearances. Seppi also reached the semi-finals at Rotterdam in February before losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.

In the next round, Seppi will face a surprise opponent. #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov lost his third consecutive match, as Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili ousted the 19-year-old 6-2, 6-4 in 69 minutes.

“I think Nikoloz played really well today,” Shapovalov said. “He came out firing. I had my chances early on and didn’t take advantage and then he took advantage. After that it was kind of hard to get a rhythm.”

Before advancing to the quarter-finals two weeks ago in Marrakech, Basilashvili had lost seven of his past eight tour-level matches. But with his performance in Morocco and his upset of Shapovalov, the 26-year-old has now reached two straight quarter-finals.

Top seed Lucas Pouille begins his title defence Thursday against Australian John Millman.

Did You Know?
Andreas Seppi has finished inside the Top 100 of the year-end ATP Rankings for 13 consecutive years.