Sock Back To Winning Ways In Stockholm

Two-time finalist Jack Sock snapped a five-match losing streak on Wednesday at the Intrum Stockholm Open. The third seed won 78 per cent of his service points and erased the lone break point faced to beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4 and improve to 3-0 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Sock improved to 12-4 in Stockholm and reached his eighth quarter-final (or better) of the season. The 25-year-old American will next face Italian Fabio Fognini, who drew on his big-match experience to save one match point in a thrilling end to a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(7) victory over top Swede and #NextGenATP Elias Ymer.

The 21-year-old Ymer had come within two points of winning when serving at 5-4 in the deciding set. He then saved three match points from 0/40 at 5-6, before holding a 6/5 lead in the tie-break.

Fognini, who is through to his seventh ATP World Tour quarter-final (or better) in 2017, is now 35-21 on the season that includes a run to the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad title (d. Hanfmann). He also finished runner-up at the St. Petersburg Open (l. to Dzumhur).

Ymer’s young brother, 19-year-old Mikael Ymer, also fell just short in an upset bid. Ymer led by a break in the third set but couldn’t put away German veteran Mischa Zverev, who advanced to the second round with a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 win. The fifth-seeded Zverev will next play Serbian Viktor Troicki.

Eighth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco advanced to the quarter-finals for the fourth time (also 2004, 2013-14) after he knocked out lucky loser Jurgen Zopp of Estonia 6-4, 6-2 in 73 minutes. It was his 25th match win of the year, which includes a run to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final (l. to Murray) in February. He awaits the winner of second-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, who is attempting to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, or South Korean Hyeon Chung, who is battling to book a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

In other action, Polish qualifier Jerzy Janowicz beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in 87 minutes to set up a clash against fourth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro. German Jan-Lennard Struff saved three match points in beating Marius Copil of Romania for a meeting against top seed and Nitto ATP Finals contender Grigor Dimitrov. Struff triumphed 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(12) in two hours and 11 minutes, saving match points at 4-5, 30/40 and at 6/7 and 10/11 in the deciding set tie-break.

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Nitto ATP Finals Contenders Start Doubles Campaign
Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, who are currently No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London added 45 points for their 6-3, 6-4 first-round win over Jonathan Eysseric and Franko Skugor. The Austrian-Croatian team, now on 2,715 points are 305 points behind eighth-placed Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram. The pair will next face Jonathon Erlich and Nikola Mektic.