Evans wins in Marrakech, Jabeur survives scare, Thiem reaches Estoril Open quarter-finals

Dan Evans overcame Australian Alexei Popyrin in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix Hassan II.

The Briton won 6-1 6-3 in his second appearance at the ATP 250 clay-court event in Marrakech on Thursday, and will play Andrea Vavassori in the last eight following his win over Jaume Munar.

“It was a tough match. I played well,” Evans said. “I haven’t won for a few tournaments, so it was important to win again.

“I enjoyed the match and it was good fun. I really like Marrakech, that is why I came back.”

The world No. 30 – who is seeded second in the Moroccan tournament – won to break a streak of six winless matches.

He dictated the baseline exchanges and found great depth on his groundstrokes to save both break points he faced.

The 32-year-old saw Popyrin off in one hour and 12 minutes to stretch his head-to-head advantage over the Australian to 3-0.

Tournament favourite Lorenzo Musetti beat Hugo Gaston in straight sets to progress beyond the last 16, with fourth seed Tallon Griekspoor winning in three sets.

There was a shock on the day, third seed Botic van de Zandschulp was beaten in three sets by Christopher O’Connell.

In the Charleston Open, Ons Jabeur produced a hard-fought second-set comeback against Caroline Dolehide on Thursday to win 6-3 7-5 and reach the last eight.

The second seed flew through the first set before falling 0-3 behind in the second as wildcard Dolehide looked to fight her way back into the tie.

However, the world No. 5 clearly wanted the match wrapped up in two sets, and whirled back into action before going on to advance to the next round.

Dolehide broke Jabeur to open the match as she faced a top 10 player for only the third time in her career, but was quickly grounded by Jabeur who went on to win the next five games.

The American took a gutsy lead in the second set, but the Wimbledon and US Open finalist got the break back at the fourth time of asking in a lengthy seventh game before closing out the match.

Jabeur has won back-to-back matches for the first time since she reached the semi-finals of the Adelaide International in January.

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Next up for the Tunisian is Anna Kalinskaya, who upset sixth seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets.

Paula Badosa moved past Diana Shnaider earlier in the day, while top seed Jessica Pegula, Bernarda Pera and Belinda Bencic are all in action on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, Dominic Thiem reached his maiden quarter-final of the year with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Ben Shelton.

He beat the eighth seed in 63 minutes in a match described as his “best performance of the season” at the Millennium Estoril Open.

Thiem dominated and overpowered the American with crushing shots off both wings in a confidence-boosting performance to earn consecutive tour-level wins, following his three-set victory over compatriot Sebastian Ofner in the first round.

“I am playing better and better,” Thiem said in his on court interview. “Just the results in the first part of the season were not there.

“This part of the season I love it. The European clay-court season.”

Thiem will take on either fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut or Quentin Halys in the next round as the former world No. 3 looks to continue his encouraging run.