Thiem battles past Mannarino to reach Cincinnati quarters

Ohio Aug 18 (IANS) Third-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem edged unseeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) to reach the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Open here.

Both players on Thursday broke serve three times over the course of the two-hour contest in which Thiem managed to assert his superiority in the tiebreakers reports Efe.

With the win Thiem ran his career record against the Frenchman to 5-0.

Next up for the 23-year-old Austrian at this hard-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event a key US Open tune-up will be unseeded Spaniard David Ferrer a 6-4 6-4 winner over 11th-seeded countryman Pablo Carreño Busta.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were American wildcard Jared Donaldson a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) winner over unseeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov who defeated Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 6-3 7-5 and Japan s Yuichi Sugita a 6-7 (0-7) 6-3 6-3 winner over Russia s Karen Khachanov in a battle of unseeded players.

In the women s draw of the Western & Southern Open a WTA Premier 5 event Danish No. 6 seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated Australian qualifier Ashleigh Barty 6-4 6-2.

Eighth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova topped Spain s Carla Suarez-Navarro 6-2 6-4 and fourth-seeded Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza edged 16th-seeded American Madison Keys 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-3).

Britain s Johanna Konta the No. 7 seed defeated 11th-seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-4 and second-seeded Romanian Simona Halep cruised past 15th-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 6-4 6-3.

--IANS
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