Thanasi Kokkinakis has joined Jordan Thompson in the quarter-finals of the Los Cabos Open in Mexico, beating Daniel Evans in straight sets at the ATP Tour event.
Kokkinakis advanced with back-to-back top-60 victories after his 6-4 6-2 win against the world No.42 Briton.
The win, which took just over two hours, marks the Australian's second consecutive win against a British opponent.
The Adelaide-born player beat world No.53 Jack Draper earlier in the week.
Kokkinakis made it to his first tour-level quarter-final since the beginning of 2023, securing a win with five aces compared to three for Evans.
Evans hit three double faults during the match, while Kokkinakis had the better of the clutch moments, saving four out of the five break points against him.
The loss also marks Evans' third loss to the Australian.
In the next round, Kokkinakis will play top seed and world No.6 Alexander Zverev.
Earlier, tournament No.8 seed Thompson dispatched of American qualifier Emilio Nava 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to set up a last-eight showdown with Alex Michelsen, who upset Australian No.3 seed Alex de Minaur 6-4 6-1.
Thompson is enjoying one of the best runs in his career. After tallying a career-best 15 ATP-level wins last season, Thompson has recorded 10 victories already in 2024.
The 29-year-old Sydneysider was put under pressure by Nava but coped brilliantly by fending off all five break points.
He then converted two opportunities of his own to continue his stellar run in the tournament.
The wins salvaged a tough day for the Australians with four other hopefuls crashing out in the round of 16.
De Minaur, Australia's top-ranked men's player and tournament No.3 seed, had a day to forget against the American after only just cracking the world's top 10.
He was clearly out of sorts and second best on the day. De Minaur converted just one of five break-point opportunities while Michelsen broke serve four times from his six chances.
Fellow Australians No.7 seed Max Purcell, Rinky Hijikata and Aleksandar Vukic also bowed out.
Purcell went down 6-3 6-3 to Portugal's Nuno Borges, who held serve throughout but broke the Sydneysider three times.
Hijikata went down 6-3 4-6 6-4 to qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic. The American sent down 11 aces in the victory and broke serve six times, even though the Australian converted five break-point chances of his own.
Vukic's loss was far more straight forward, going down 6-3 6-0 to Greek No.2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
with PA
