Born-again Bernard Tomic has continued his extraordinary renaissance with another stunning victory to surge into his first ATP quarterfinal in seven years.<\/p>\n
A day after notching the fastest win on the tour all year, Tomic claimed the prized scalp of dual grand slam semifinalist Karen Khachanov in a straight-sets blitz in Mexico on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).<\/p>\n
And rounding out a banner day for Australian tennis less than a month out from the US Open, world number six Alex de Minaur has beaten his old nemesis Stefanos Tsitsipas to set up an intriguing showdown with Cruz Hewitt in Washington.<\/p>\n
The day, though, belonged to the resurgent Tomic.<\/p>\n
The one-time world number 17 crushed fourth-seeded Khachanov \u2014 the big-serving Russian who ousted Nick Kyrgios to reach the 2022 US Open semifinals \u2014 6-2, 6-4 to continue his spectacular comeback from the brink of retirement.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old hinted he was considering hanging up his racquet before snaring the Lincoln Challenger this month.<\/p>\n
“I’ll be as honest as I can, about 10 days ago I hit a bit of a brick wall, maybe two weeks ago,” Tomic said in the aftermath of his biggest breakthrough since 2018.<\/p>\n
“I said this was going to be my last year, so I guess I have to reassess a few things now. Now that I won, I’m going to have to go back to the table. I’m probably going to play another 20 years.”<\/p>\n
Twenty more years may be a stretch, but Tomic is playing some vintage tennis.<\/p>\n
The former teenage Wimbledon quarter-finalist only made the main draw in Mexico as a qualifying lucky loser.<\/p>\n
Now he is three wins away from hoisting the trophy in Los Cabos, having earlier needed just 46 minutes to take down Alex Hernandez 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.<\/p>\n
Currently ranked 171st, Tomic will climb even further and potentially to as high as number 132 if he wins a most unexpected fifth ATP title.<\/p>\n
Next up will be either British fifth seed Cam Norrie or fellow Australian James Duckworth in Tomic’s first ATP quarterfinal since losing to de Minaur in Atlanta in 2019.<\/p>\n
De Minaur, meanwhile, is celebrating his own big victory, after downing Tsitsipas for only the second time in 14 meetings to reach the last 16 in the US capital.<\/p>\n
The 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win earned the top seed and defending champion a first-time encounter with 17-year-old Hewitt, de Minaur’s understudy and son of Australian Davis Cup captain and mentor Lleyton.<\/p>\n
After winning his first ATP match on Wednesday, Hewitt said it would be a “dream” to square off against de Minaur, who he likened to a big brother.<\/p>\n
“I’ve known him basically my whole life,” said Hewitt, who made the Wimbledon boys’ final two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
“\u200bHe’s stayed with us and we have Christmas together, also. He’s taught me so \u200bmuch. I think that \u2060would be a pretty cool memory for us.”<\/p>\n
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