Kyrgios’ ATP clash with Karlovic delayed

Nick Kyrgios has been forced to wait to progress to the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters after his clash with Ivo Karlovic was delayed by rain.

The match will resume on Friday after bad weather interrupted the third-round encounter with Karlovic leading the Australian 4-3 on serve.

Kyrgios looked slightly stronger in the early going, creating two break points in the fifth game but failing to take either.

Big-serving Karlovic, ranked 44 in the world, has hit eight aces to one.

The winner will play the victor of soon to be world No.1 Rafael Nadal’s clash with Spanish countryman Albert Ramos Vinolas.

Meanwhile, Grigor Dimitrov has rallied from a 4-1 second-set deficit for a 6-3 7-5 win over Juan Martin del Potro to reach the quarter-finals.

The seventh-seeded Dimitrov had to tighten up his game to pick up his first career win in six matches against Del Potro. Dimitrov improved to 15-13 in his last 28 matches after opening the season 16-1.

“I played pretty sloppy for the first three games,” Dimitrov said of the second set.

“It was all my fault. I just thought if I stayed with him and made the right decisions, I would have a chance.”

Dimitrov will face Yuichi Sugita, who advanced with a 6-7 (7-0) 6-3 6-3 win over Karen Khachanov.

David Ferrer reached his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final in his last 11 attempts with a 6-4 6-4 win over countryman Pablo Carreno Busta.

The veteran Spaniard will face third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the last eight after the Austrian edged unseeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3).

Both players broke serve three times over the course of the two-hour contest, in which Thiem managed to assert his superiority in the tiebreakers.

Also advancing Thursday to the quarter-finals was American wildcard Jared Donaldson, a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) winner over unseeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili.

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