'Clutch' serving sends Shelton to Washington QFs

Ben Shelton held his nerve in two tight tie-breaks Thursday to seal his place in the Mubadala Citi DC Open quarter-finals. The second-seeded American ousted countryman Brandon Nakashima 7-6(5), 7-6(4).

The 21-year-old hugged the baseline and produced heavy-hitting, first-strike tennis in humid conditions. Despite letting slip three set points on serve at 5-4 in the first set, Shelton, who on Wednesday won a late night three-setter against Radu Albot, quickly rebounded to win the opener in a tie-break. The lefty won 81 per cent of his first-serve points and hammered 14 aces, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

“I served amazing today, that was one of the keys for me,” said Shelton, who struck a pair of aces from 5/4 in the second-set tie-break to seal victory. “If you don’t have 100 per cent in the tank, it’s really hard to break serve against a guy like him so I knew that I was going to have to hold serve.

“I did a great job holding serve, got broke once. But my best tennis came out in the tie-break. I thought it was just a clutch performance. I managed my energy well and I’m happy to be through. A really tough opponent.”

Shelton will next face wild card Denis Shapovalov in a rematch of last month’s Wimbledon third round five-setter, which the American won. The Canadian on Thursday rallied past Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Shelton’s countrymen Sebastian Korda and Alex Michelsen also advanced. The fourth seed Korda reached the last eight after Thanasi Kokkinakis retired with the American leading 6-7(1), 7-5, 3-2. Kokkinakis had two match points on serve at 5-4 in the second set. #NextGenATP Michelsen downed South Korean Seongchan Hong 6-3, 6-3.

Michelsen next meets Italian Flavio Cobolli, who earned a memorable win, saving five match points to defeat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 1-6, 7-6(0), 7-6(7) in a three-hour, 14-minute marathon. Cobolli, 22, trailed 2/6 in the tie-break and again fought off a match point at 6/7. The 10th seed is No. 47 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, one spot ahead of his career-high.

Atlanta finalist and seventh seed Jordan Thompson defeated Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-5, 6-4.