MELBOURNE: Big-serving Hubert Hurkacz ended the dream run of French wildcard Arthur Cazaux 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 on Monday to advance to his first Australian Open quarter-final.
Cazaux, 21, raced into a 3-0 lead in the first set but was pegged back by ninth-seed Hurkacz, who came out on top in the tie-break on John Cain Arena.
There were no breaks in a serve-dominated second set but the 26-year-old Pole again won the tie-break to take a firm grip on the match.
He broke his 122nd-ranked opponent in the first game of the third set and never looked back.
Overall, Hurkacz won 91 percent of his first-serve points and was broken just once in the entire match.
The former Wimbledon semi-finalist, whose previous best performance at Melbourne Park was the fourth round last year, will face third seed Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals.
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“Arthur is such a great competitor, congratulations to him for an amazing run here,” said Hurkacz.
“I served well and he was serving well as well so I needed to stay aggressive and I’m really happy with today’s performance.
“I haven’t been into too many Grand Slam quarter-finals and super excited.”
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