Trio of Americans Into Citi Open Quarterfinals

For the first time since 2012, three Americans find themselves in the quarterfinals of the Citi Open in Washington, D.C, as eighth-seed John Isner, 15th-seeded Jack Sock and unseeded Steve Johnson all won their third round matches on Thursday.

The most surprising victory of the three came from the unseeded Johnson, who upended sixth-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Johnson broke twice in eight opportunities to reach his fourth quarterfinal this season.

He will play Sock, who came back from a set down to beat fourth-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-4.

Sock found himself in big trouble late in the second set. After dropping the opening set tiebreaker, he went down a break and was facing another break point while down 2-4. He would rally back to hold, and then followed it up with a break to even the frame at 4-4.

The set would go into a tie-breaker, and Gasquet again jumped ahead 3-1. But Sock continued to fight, reeling off five straight points, eventually closing it out 7-5 to force a deciding third set.

Sock would nail down the only break of the third set, completing his comeback over Gasquet to reach the final eight.

“He’s playing some pretty good tennis now, he’s had some pretty consistent results and moved up the rankings,” said Sock of his next opponent Johnson. “I think especially on a surface like this and in the U.S., both playing here, it should be a fun match. I’m just happy there are two Americans advancing.”

Isner was the final match on court on Thursday night, and defeated 12th seeded Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 7-6(6). He faced just one break point and lost just two first service points to advance to the quarterfinals.

Up next for Isner is Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, who ousted Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 6-4, a day after Gabashvili took out top-seed Andy Murray.

Third-seed Marin Cilic won two tie-breakers to move past 13th-seeded American Sam Querrey 7-6(2), 7-6(3)

Querrey actually won seven more total points than Cilic, and had a chance to serve out the second set while up 5-3, but was unable to.

“Pretty comfortable tie-breakers, but if one or two things would be a bit different, it could have been very, very tight,” said Cilic.

Cilic will play German teenager Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. Zverev battled back from a set down to beat Alexandr Dolgopolov 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The other quarterfinal in D.C. will see second-seeded Kei Nishikori take on big-serving Australian Sam Groth.

Nishikori notched a routine 6-4, 6-4 victory over 16th seed Leonardo Mayer, while Groth knocked off seventh-seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4.