Sonego Stuns Second Seed In Rio

Italian Lorenzo Sonego produced a major upset on Thursday at the Rio Open presented by Claro, rallying from a break down in each set to defeat second-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic 7-6(5), 7-6(5) and reach the quarter-finals.

Sonego trailed by 3-4 in the opening set and 0-3 in the second set, but raised his level at critical moments to prevail in two hours and 10 minutes. The 24-year-old is through to his first quarter-final at an ATP 500 event and tied his ATP Head2Head series with Lajovic at 1-1. He awaits the winner of fifth-seeded Croatian Borna Coric and #NextGenATP Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild.

Gianluca Mager scored the biggest result of his career by dismissing Portuguese Joao Domingues 6-3, 7-6(5) in a battle of qualifiers. The 25-year-old Italian saved a set point on his serve at 4-5 in the second set before eventually moving into his maiden ATP Tour quarter-final. He is projected to surpass his career-high FedEx ATP Ranking of No. 114 on Monday.

Next up for Mager is the winner of the last match on Thursday’s schedule between top-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and Spaniard Jaume Munar.