Wednesday 24 October 2018 19:22, UK
British No 1 Kyle Edmund came through a testing encounter against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman to reach the Erste Bank Open second round after a 6-3 7-6 (7-3) victory in Vienna.
The 23-year-old won his maiden professional singles title at the European Open on Sunday and continued his strong late-season form with another accomplished performance.
Edmund, semi-finalist last year, will next face experienced Spaniard Fernando Verdasco as the Briton continues a late charge for qualification into the season-ending ATP Finals in London.
The world No 14 had lost to Schwartzman, ranked only three places lower in the rankings, in Toronto during the summer hard court US swing but victory on Wednesday moved him to five wins in a row and 11 from 13 matches.
He saved a break point during his opening service game before he converted his only break point of the first set in the eighth game before he held serve to love to take command.
Both players dominated behind their serve in the second set before Edmund secured three mini-breaks in a tiebreak to avoid being taken the distance.
Gael Monfils, who Edmund beat in the Antwerp final, recovered from losing the first set against Steve Johnson to progress 4-6 6-3 6-2 and book a meeting with fourth seed John Isner.
Karen Khachanov also extended his winning run as the Kremlin Cup champion overcame Austrian Dennis Novak 6-3 7-5 while Mikhail Kukushkin recorded his third victory against a top 10 opponent as he beat last year's ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 4-6 6-4.
Marton Fucsovics knocked out seventh seed Fabio Fognini 4-6 6-3 6-2 to move into the quarter-finals while Kevin Anderson also progressed through to the last eight after his Austrian opponent Jurgen Melzer withdrew from their second round match.
Meanwhile at the Swiss Indoors in Basel Stefanos Tsitsipas, who won his maiden professional singles title in Stockholm last week, defeated Jeremy Chardy 6-2 7-6 (7-3) to reach the second round.
"It was a good win for me today, I'm happy with my performance," said world No 16 Tsitsipas.
"It was tough to come back after winning a title last week. But I'm excited about what's to come in my tennis."
Ernests Gulbis caused the first upset of the week as he beat fifth seed Jack Sock 7-5 6-4.
Roberto Buatista Agut defeated Joao Sousa 6-4 6-3 and will next meet lucky loser Dusan Lajovic, who progressed 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-2 against Adrian Mannarino.
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