Dubai Tennis: Shapovalov enters quarterfinals; Chardy stuns Khachanov

Dubai - The 21-year-old Canadian beat Hurkacz 6-4, 6-3

Third seed Denis Shapovalov progressed to his 21st ATP quarterfinals in his 200th career match, with a straight-set victory over Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in the ATP Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Canadian, ranked 12th in the world, beat the 13th seed 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 16 minutes, in the third-round match on Centre Court of the Aviation Club Tennis Centre.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Jeremy Chardy continued his dream run in the Dubai event, toppling another seed, to enter the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old veteran, ranked 53 in the world, rallied from a set down to work his way past eighth-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, in the third-round match that lasted two hours and 35 minutes, on Court 1.

Chardy, the Wimbledon boys singles champion in 2005, and a quarterfinalist at the Australian Open in 2013, had knocked off ninth seed Australian Alex de Minaur in three sets, in the second round.

His opening round match too had gone to three sets with the Rotterdam Open quarterfinalist beating Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Shapovalov, on the other hand, will go up against either eighth seed Karen Khachanov of Russia or Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in the last eight.

“Definitely played some great tennis today. Like you said, I struggled with Hubert in the past. He’s such a great player and he’s got a lot of weapons. So, he’s definitely not easy to play against. But I just think I’ve been playing really well and taking my chances and I was serving really well today,” Shapovalov said courtside, after the match.