American tennis stars Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz are headed for another showdown, this time on the grass courts of the Terra Wortman Open in Halle, Germany — just days after facing off in the Stuttgart final.
Shelton, seeded third in the tournament, took down fellow American Ethan Quinn on Thursday with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory. Meanwhile, fifth-seeded Fritz dominated Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-4 to punch his own ticket to the quarterfinals. The two will clash again on Friday, with Shelton looking to build on his three-set win over Fritz last Sunday — a victory that gave him his third title of the year.
The win over Quinn extended Shelton’s winning streak to six consecutive matches across two events. Fritz, for his part, was nearly untouchable on his first serve against Marozsan, winning an impressive 93.8 percent of those points — converting 30 of 32.
French Open champion and top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany also moved through the draw, defeating his countryman Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 7-6 (4). Belgium’s Raphael Collignon also reached the quarterfinals after rallying past Italy’s Mattia Bellucci 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
At the HSBC Championships on the grass at Queen’s Club in London, Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata pulled off an upset, defeating second-seeded Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7). Hijikata navigated eight break point opportunities — saving five of them — and capitalized on 41 unforced errors by Lehecka before closing out the match on his fourth match point.
Eighth-seeded Tommy Paul also advanced at Queen’s Club, beating the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6 (5), 6-3. The win pushed Paul’s winning streak at the event to seven straight matches. Paul claimed the tournament title in 2024 but was unable to defend it last year due to injury.
Fourth-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain moved on with a 6-4, 6-3 win over France’s Corentin Moutet. Elsewhere, the match between Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic and France’s Ugo Humbert was suspended due to darkness with each player having won one set.
