After making his first Grand Slam semi-final at the start of the year at the Australian Open, Hyeon Chung is now through to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final at the BNP Paribas Open. The 21-year-old South Korean raced past Pablo Cuevas, 6-1, 6-3, on Wednesday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Chung’s breakthrough came with victory at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in November (d. Rublev) and since then he has gone from strength to strength, racking up a 15-5 record already in 2018. Last year, the right-hander did not claim his 15th tour-level win until the Masters 1000 in Montreal in August.
“I'm just starting with a new team this year with Neville Godwin, and he has helped me try to enjoy more on the court. And we started last preseason working on the serve a little bit,” Chung said.
Chung will next look to challenge World No. 1 Roger Federer, who won all 25 of his first-serve points and beat Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-4, Federer's 60th win in Indian Wells.
Chung has his sights set on the Top 20 in the ATP Rankings, having started the season at No. 58. Currently ranked No. 26, the Suwon native took down Cuevas in 73 minutes. After Chung had dominated to open up a 6-1, 5-0 lead, the wily Uruguayan veteran dug his heels in to make the South Korean work for his victory. Cuevas fended off seven match points to break back in the sixth game and then broke Chung again to bring the score back to 5-3, but the right-hander closed out victory at the third time of asking.
“It was a really tough match against Pablo. I had a lot of chances to finish, like, 6-1, 5-love up. I had a few match points but it started getting windy and he was playing good. So I'm just happy to win 6-3,” Chung said.
Borna Coric joined Chung in the last eight as he battled past Next Gen American Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes.
Coric had lost only nine games in surging through to the R16 and looked set for another dominant display as he raced to secure the first set 6-2 against Fritz. But the 20-year-old American stood his ground in the second set. He failed to serve out the set when he had the opportunity at 5-4, but then held his nerve to save match point at 5/6 in the tie-break before levelling up on Stadium 1 with a roar.
Fritz carried his momentum into the decider with a break in the first game, but Coric, now working with Riccardo Piatti and Kristijan Schneider, clawed his way back to level in the fourth game. He then saved a crucial break point in the ninth game before breaking Fritz to clinch the match in the following game, converting his fourth match point overall.
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On windy days like Wednesday, Coric said, it doesn't matter how pretty your tennis looks as long as you can find a way to advance.
“You fight and you just try to win, just however. That's it. You're happy with the win, not the way you played. Of course I'm not happy with the way I played last two sets, but I think no one is going to play great today,” Coric said.
“I think... my very good attitude and that I stayed calm [got me through the match]. It was very, very tough second set. Ups and downs and set points, the tie-break. I could already be in my room watching Netflix, and I was out there, playing on that wind and that sun.”
Fritz leaves Indian Wells with confidence from his best run yet at a Masters 1000 tournament. "That was just a really tough one," said Fritz. "It obviously sucks to compete so hard and come back the way I did in the second-set tie-break and saved the match points just to double fault it away.
"It sucks, and it's probably the biggest match I have played in my career as far as making a quarter-finals of a Masters, points, and all that. It's really tough to lose that match.
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"It stings a lot, but you do have to take away positives," added Fritz. "I made the round of 16 for the first time, and I think I'm playing very good tennis.
"This year for me has been very consistent. I have had a lot of strong results. And I'm off to a really good start for the year, and I think I can build on this and make this more of a regular thing."
Coric will look to reach his first Masters 1000 semi-final when he faces seventh seed Kevin Anderson, who came back from a set down to beat Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta for the fourth consecutive time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series (4-0) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6). Anderson lost only seven first-serve points (43/50, 86%) and hit 16 aces. But he almost faced serious trouble late in the third set because of a ball he didn't even attempt to hit.
Anderson had gained his first match point at 6/5 in the tie-break, but mid-rally, Carreno Busta lifted a backhand crosscourt that Anderson thought would drop long. Yet the ball landed right on the line, and Anderson didn't even try to hit it. Instead he challenged the call and lost. But the No. 9 player in the ATP Rankings regrouped to win the fourth-round match two points later.
Anderson leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Coric 3-0. “I know what to expect. I know how he sort of plays. I have been watching him a little bit this week. Seems to be play very well, fighting very well, being aggressive from the baseline,” Anderson said. “For me the biggest thing is always focusing on playing my kind of tennis as much I can. I feel when I do that I give myself the best chance of having a good result.”