Ben Shelton continues his winning run
The American to meet Alexander Zverev next
Shelton won in an hour and 21 minutes
Ben Shelton reached the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Open after defeating Jiri Lehecka in straight sets.
The 22-year-old won 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 21 minutes to set up a last-eight clash against Alexander Zverev.
Shelton needed to break Lehecka’s serve just once in the first to secure the opening set after a clinical display from the American.
He dropped just six points while serving throughout the first and converted a crucial break point at the third attempt to take the lead.
Lehecka threatened to take the match to a deciding set after breaking Shelton early in the second, but the home favourite broke back immediately before going on to secure the win with a 141mph ace.
Elsewhere, qualifier Terence Atmane continued to cause more upsets as he beat seventh-seed Holger Rune to reach the semi-finals.
Atmane, who had previously knocked out Flavio Cobolli, Joao Fonseca and Taylor Fritz, won 6-2 6-3 against Rune and will face world number one Jannik Sinner in the next round.
Data Debrief: Shelton can’t stop winning
Following on from his triumph at the Canada Open, Shelton has now won his last nine matches. He is also the first American man to reach the last eight in Canada and Cincinnati in the same season since Mardy Fish in 2012.
Atmane, meanwhile, is the fourth qualifier to claim multiple ATP top 10 wins at an ATP 1000 event after Guillermo Canas (Miami 2007), Jerzy Janowicz (Paris 2012) and Yannick Hanfmann (Rome 2023).
The 23-year-old is also just the third qualifier to reach the men’s singles semi-final at the Cincinnati Open after David Wheaton (1994) and Alexandr Dolgopolov (2015).
