World number one Daniil Medvedev defeated Ilya Ivashka for the second time in six days to reach the Halle grass court quarter-finals yesterday.
Medvedev triumphed 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 over the 42nd-ranked Ivashka having also got the better of the Belarusian in the quarter-finals at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last week.
“He is a great player,” said Medvedev after he improved his lead in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series to 3-1.
“He had a lot of bad luck with injuries at the beginning of the season. At the end of last season he was playing really great tennis.
“I’ve known him since I was very young, we actually played (each other) in Futures, Challengers, and on the ATP Tour. He beat me once in Davis Cup, which is a really important tournament. So he knows how to play tennis, he knows how to play well on grass, so I’m really happy that two times in a row I managed to pass a tough test.”
Top seed Medvedev fought off three set points at 4-5 in the opening set before going on to clinch it in a tie-break.
The second set was far more straightforward with the 26-year-old Russian wrapping up victory in one hour and 36 minutes.
Medvedev next faces seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut or qualifier Tallon Griekspoor for a place in the semi-finals.
Halle is a warm-up event for Wimbledon but Medvedev and his fellow Russian and Belarusian players won’t be there after being banned following the invasion of Ukraine.

Top seed Jabeur, Gauff
advance IN BERLIN
Top seed Ons Jabeur and French Open runner-up Coco Gauff both advanced to the quarter-finals of the Berlin WTA grass court tournament yesterday.
Tunisian Jabeur saved a set point to snuff out the challenge of 169th-ranked American Alycia Parks 6-2, 7-6 (10/8) to set up a clash with Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich as she targets a fourth semi-final of the season.
“The second set, she started to play much better, and I had to take my chances when I had the break,” said Jabeur.
“It’s tough, I should have taken my chances when I was serving. I knew if it was gonna be 6-5 it would be really tough for me. But I’m glad I stayed calm afterwards.”
Jabeur, the world number four, won her first tournament on grass in Birmingham last year before reaching the quarter-finals in Wimbledon.
Eighteen-year-old Gauff, the seventh seed, dominated China’s Wang Xinyu 6-0, 6-4 to set up a clash with Czech seventh seed Karolina Pliskova, a Wimbledon finalist last year.