Tsitsipas moves into quarter-finals at Toronto ATP tennis

Stefanos Tsitsipas turned 23 on Thursday with a solid win into his fourth ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season as he beat Olympic silver medalist Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-2 in Toronto.

The Greek third seed set up a last-eight meeting with the form player of the moment, Norway's Casper Ruud, who extended his summer win streak to 13 matches.

The sixth-seeded Scandinavian dispatched Serb Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-3 after winning three straight titles on clay in his first hardcourt tournament of the summer.

Ruud claimed his 37th win of the season against just nine defeats and said that making the transition from clay to cement is all a part of the season.

"It's fun to play on hardcourt, even if I've had my best results on clay; my best Slam result this season was at the Australian Open (quarter-finals).

"This is a surface which I think can suit my game. I'm very motivated to come back to the hardcourts.

''We will be on them for the next seven or eight months from now."

Tsitsipas now owns 177 ATP-level match wins and has defeated Khachanov four times.

Tsitsipas finished off Khachanov in 80 minutes, with the Russian committing more than 30 unforced errors.

The birthday boy received a serenade from fans and a cake on court.

"This is one of the best feelings that you can experience on a tennis court, I'm glad they remembered," he said.

"It's always a beautiful day when it's your birthday."

The Greek knows he will have to work against Ruud on Friday.

''Casper is a player who has been developing very good recently; he had an amazing clay court season.

"We are the same age, we grew up playing each other; it can be quite intense."

© 2021 AFP