Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands fired nine aces on his way to knocking off Italian third seed Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the Round of 16 at the Open Occitanie on Thursday in Montpellier, France.
In the one-hour, 57-minue affair, de Jong won an overwhelming 90 percent (27 of 30) of his first-service points along with 58.8 percent (20 of 34) of points on his second serve.
He set up an all-Dutch quarterfinal match against No. 5 seed Tallon Griekspoor, who got past Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 on Thursday. Griekspoor held an 18-11 edge in aces. Neither player broke serve in the third set until the 12th and final game, when Griekspoor won on his first match point.
American qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic edged Italy’s Mattia Bellucci 7-5, 7-6 (5) and will face fourth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in the quarters. Georgia qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili upset French No. 7 seed Arthur Rinderknech 6-0, 7-6 (4), and his reward is a date with top-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia.
–Field Level Media
