Pole Hubert Hurkacz quietly launched the defense of his title at the ATP 250 tournament in Marseille on Thursday by easily beating Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko 6-1, 6-4.
Seeded N.1 and 8th player in the world, Hurkacz relied as often on his first service ball and said he was “overall satisfied” with his performance and “very happy to be back in Marseille”. In the quarter-finals, the Pole will face the Czech Tomas Machac, 66th player in the ATP rankings, on Friday. Previously, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (28th in the world), semi-finalist in Montpellier last week, had disappeared in the 2nd round of this Open 13, beaten by the Chinese Zhang Zhizhen (50th).
Auger-Aliassime, seeded N.7 in a tournament in which he was twice a finalist, lost 6-4, 6-4 against a solid opponent throughout the match. In the quarter-finals, Zhang Zhizhen will face Russian Karen Khachanov (18th), seeded N.3. The Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich (24th) also qualified for the quarter-finals by beating the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori (55th) 6-3, 7-5.
The Spaniard, seeded N.5 and 24th in the world, will face Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who precedes him by three places in the ATP rankings, for a place in the last four.
The last quarter-final will pit the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, seeded N.2, against the winner of the last match scheduled for Thursday evening, between the Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech and the Czech Jiri Lehecka.