Defending champion Ben Shelton kept a clean slate at the ATP Montreal Masters tennis tournament on Sunday, holding off a challenge from Joao Fonseca to power 6-3 7-6 (7\/3) into the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
World number 10 Shelton has not dropped a set in reaching the last eight.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old American lefthander will play for a semifinal berth against 13th-seeded Czech Jakub Mensik, who beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4 7-5, claiming victory on a winning lob.<\/p>\n
Van de Zandschulp served for the second set but was broken, with Mensik seizing the momentum as he won 12 of the final 14 points.<\/p>\n
Brazilian teenager Fonseca, billed as one of the faces for the future of the sport, might have compromised his own chances when he landed badly on his ankle after missing a smash while leading 3-1, 40-30 in the second set.<\/p>\n
The youngster was plagued by 32 unforced errors as his opponent mastered an annoying evening wind to earn the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough today, not easy conditions,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cWith the wind I struggled to find footing on a lot of balls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all came down to grit. The tennis was not clean. Beating a high-quality player like that is huge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shelton secured his ninth straight victory in Canada on the second of four match points as Fonseca hit the net with a return after leading in both sets.<\/p>\n
Daniel Merida smothered Tallon Griekspoor 6-3 6-1 as the Spaniard continued his rapid adjustment to hard-court tennis in Canada.<\/p>\n
The world number 63 joins compatriot Rafael Jodar in the Canada quarterfinals and will break through to a career-best spot inside the top 50 as a result of his fourth-round victory.<\/p>\n
Before making his Montreal debut, Merida had never won a tour-level match on hard courts.<\/p>\n
He will try to extend his streak of cement success to five in a row when he plays a first Masters quarterfinal against US 12th seed Learner Tien, who wore down Argentine Thiago Tirante 6-4 6-4.<\/p>\n
Tien saved the first eight break points he faced in the second set in a battle of big hitters and secured victory in his fifth match point, with his opponent handing over the final game with four unforced errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was humid; conditions are always tough,\u201d Tien said. \u201cI\u2019m happy with how the match worked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was one of those days where I was making good contact with the ball. I was seeing the ball well and returning well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against Griekspoor, Merida was deadly with his backhand, leaving the Dutchman flat-footed in the 69-minute triumph.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s title-winner last month on clay in Umag has now claimed 16 victories this breakthrough season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dream come true. I\u2019m feeling really great,\u201d Merida said. \u201cI\u2019m happy with the level during the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing great for the last year and the beginning of this year, so I\u2019m just starting to believe more in myself.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defending champion Ben Shelton kept a clean slate at the ATP Montreal Masters tennis tournament on Sunday, holding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[17190,419,18441,2153,18440,1023,438,695,18439,1091,4100,18442,304,18443],"class_list":["post-49437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ben-shelton","tag-atp-montreal-masters","tag-ben-shelton","tag-canadian-tennis-tournament","tag-daniel-merida","tag-hardcourt-tennis","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-joao-fonseca","tag-learner-tien","tag-montreal-quarter-finals","tag-rafael-jodar","tag-tallon-griekspoor","tag-tennis-breakthrough-season","tag-tennis-news","tag-thiago-tirante"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}