Denis Istomin and Farukh Dustov are the only players from Uzbekistan to reach the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, but this week’s $125,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Tashkent has revealed a new face that could become the next Uzbek player to accomplish the feat.

Sanjar Fayziev made the most of the main draw wild card given to him by reaching his first Challenger quarterfinal in his hometown. The 22 year old, ranked No. 521 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, scored his biggest career win in the opening round by defeating fourth seed and World No. 95 Evgeny Donskoy of Russia in a third-set tie-break. He then backed up that victory with another three-set win over Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan.

Although he lost in the quarter-finals on Thursday to fifth seed Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia, Fayziev said he was pleased with the progress he made this week.

“It’s been a mixed year because I’ve been hampered by chronic throat and heart issues that kept me out, but now my fitness is fine and I’m fighting again,” said Fayziev. “I’m really pleased about the journey this week.”

Fayziev said he credited his Tashkent success with playing his first Davis Cup tie for Uzbekistan last month in his home city. Although he lost to Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland, he said the occasion showed him “how to be emotionally calm and stable and that’s helped me to close out matches here.”

He’s one of several players from Uzbekistan under the age of 22 who are currently making inroads up the Emirates ATP Rankings, including Temur Ismailov and Khumuon Sultanov. They all practice together regularly and find themselves at many of the same ITF Futures and Challenger events throughout Central Asia.

“We have a good friendship and training sessions between us, as well as good guidance from our mentors,” said Fayziev. “Obviously this helps all of us and the support and faith we get from our federation also motivates us to work harder.”

Fayziev’s inspired run in Tashkent will bring him up nearly 100 places in the Emirates ATP Rankings on Monday. Although he will compete in ITF Futures events for the remainder of 2016, this week has shown he can become a regular on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“Challengers are difficult because the returns are faster, the serves are harder and players have more experience, but it’s a good opportunity for me,” said Fayziev. “The wins this week make me more confident that I belong here.”

Hello from Shanghai where Jamie Murray and I are into the quarterfinals! It’s a very big tournament, a tournament that I really enjoy, so I want to stay till the end.

It’s been an amazing year. It’s the first season me and Jamie are playing together. When we got together at the end of last year, both of us were close to winning Slams before, but we didn’t have one. Of course, once you partner with someone, there’s this belief that you’re going to do well. But to bring that into the court was a completely different thing.

We played each other so many times before so we knew how to work with each other’s game and success came really fast. In our first three tournaments, we won Sydney, and then went on to win Melbourne, our first Slam. And now, for us to win the US Open, too, it’s more than we asked for. It’s been amazing. It’s been really nice to play with Jamie. He was a good friend before, and now he became a good friend and my partner, so we’ve been having a lot of success but also a lot of fun on- and off-court.

People say a doubles team is like a marriage and in my case, that’s 100% true. For me, I feel the off-court is as important as the on-court. You wake up, you do practice, you’re tired, you’re jet-lagged and then you play. You win, you lose, you’ve got to deal with so many emotions and you’ve got to be able to do that with your partner. For me, it’s exactly like a marriage. It’s important to have a connection.

Read the rest of Bruno’s blog on the Shanghai Rolex Masters website

Two-time former champion Andy Murray was solid on first serve at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Thursday when he booked a place in the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over No. 13 seed Lucas Pouille.

Murray will next challenge sixth seed Gael Monfils or No. 11 seed David Goffin, who are both attempting to clinch a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 13-20 November, for the first time.

Murray capitalised on Pouille’s inexperience, moving towards the net to finish points when the Frenchman floated back sliced backhands. The Scot won the first five games, broke in the first game of the second set and won 95 per cent of his first service points. He converted his third match point opportunity for victory in 78 minutes.

Murray, who has picked up five titles this year – including at the China Open (d. Dimitrov) last week, has a 62-9 match record and is battling Novak Djokovic to finish year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.