Alexander Zverev beats Fernando Verdasco to reach quarters in Cologne; Daniil Medvedev loses in St Petersburg

Cologne: Top-seeded Alexander Zverev advanced to the quarterfinals of the Cologne Indoors by beating Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-1 Thursday. Zverev was playing indoors for the first time this year after a mixed record on indoor hard courts in 2019. He has been strong in those conditions in the past with three career indoor titles, including the 2018 ATP Finals. Zverev had seven aces and didn’t face a break point against Verdasco. He will next play Lloyd Harris in the quarterfinals. Zverev is looking for his first title of the year and his third in his native Germany following victories at the clay-court Munich tournament in 2017 and 2018. Roberto Bautista Agut booked his place in the quarterfinals after defeating the experienced Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 7-6 (5). His reward is a match against Hubert Hurkacz. Third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime earned a 6-4, 6-1 win against qualifier Henri Laaksonen. The Canadian next faces Radu Albot of Moldova for a place in the semifinals. Eighth-seeded Marin Cilic was upset 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 by Spanish player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who set up a quarterfinal against Austria’s Dennis Novak. Opelka fights back to oust Medvedev at St Petersburg Open Hard-serving American Reilly Opelka saved four break points in the final set before beating defending champion Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 5-7, 4-6 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the St Petersburg Open. Opelka converted his third set point to break the top-seeded Medvedev in the final game in the second set, and then broke for a second time at 5-4 in the third to clinch the match. The sixth-ranked Medvedev has lost four of his last five matches, including the US Open semifinal against Dominic Thiem. His sole win in that span came against Richard Gasquet in the first round in St. Petersburg. Opelka faces a quarterfinal against seventh-seeded Borna Coric. The Croatian defeated Russian wild-card entry Roman Safiullin 6-3, 7-5 after coming back from 3-1 down in the second set. Second-seeded Denis Shapovalov had little trouble beating Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka 6-1, 6-4 in their second-round match and next plays Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals. Andrey Rublev came back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 against Ugo Humbert and next plays Cameron Norrie of Britain. Rublev has won 11 of his last 12 matches including a run to the Hamburg title and to the quarterfinals of the French Open, which propelled the Russian into the top 10 of the rankings for the first time. Karen Khachanov won an all-Russian match with Aslan Karatsev 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Milos Raonic beat Alexander Bublik 6-3, 6-2. The St. Petersburg Open was in focus Thursday after organizers alleged Sam Querrey of the U.S. had left Russia by private plane after being placed in isolation with his wife and baby son. Querrey and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus, organizers said.