IMAGE: Rafael Nadal advanced to his first quarter-final since January. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Spain’s Rafael Nadal trailed in the second set before overcoming No. 5 seed Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the Nordea Open quarter-finals in Bastad, Sweden.
The opening set was on serve before Nadal broke Norrie in the seventh game. He then fell behind 4-1 in the second before sweeping the last five games. He recorded 22 winners and only seven unforced errors. The unseeded Nadal will meet No. 4 seed Mariano Navone of Argentina next in his first quarter-final since January.
Navone was a 6-4, 6-2 winner against India’s Sumit Nagal. Kazakhstan’s Timofey Skatov ousted No. 3 seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and seventh-seeded Nuno Borges of Portugal rallied past countryman Henrique Rocha 1-6, 6-4, 6-0.
No. 5 seed Arthur Fils of France advanced to the quarters in Germany with a 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory against Serbian Laslo Djere.
Fils, 20, saved six of seven break points and became the fifth man to reach multiple Hamburg quarter-finals before the age of 21, a list that includes Novak Djokovic and Mats Wilander. Up next is No. 2 seed Holger Rune of Denmark, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti.
Top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany outlasted Frenchman Hugo Gaston 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 and No. 8 seed Zhizhen Zhang of China defeated Italy’s Flavio Cobolli 6-1, 7-6 (5).
No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada moved into his fourth quarter-final of the season with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann in Switzerland.
Auger-Aliassime, seeking his maiden title on clay, fought off two set points in the opening set. He will face 2018 champion Matteo Berrettini of Italy next. The sixth-seeded Italian won 6-4, 6-2 over Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia.
Brazil’s Gustavo Heide knocked out No. 2 seed Ugo Humbert of France 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3, while Frenchman Quentin Halys defeated Lukas Klein of Slovakia 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-4.
No. 2 seed Marcos Giron shrugged off a slow start to record a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win against Benoit Paire of France in Newport, R.I.
Giron, who hit eight aces while capitalizing on Paire’s nine double faults, will face Australia’s Alex Bolt in the last eight.
The afternoon in Newport saw two quarter-final matches. No. 3 seed Alex Michelsen hung on for a 6-4, 6-4 win over Aleksandar Kovacevic, overcoming Kovacevic’s 12 aces without a double fault. Reilly Opelka defeated Mackenzie McDonald 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
