ATP Tour

Tomic continues resurgence in Los Cabos! Lucky loser stuns Khachanov, reaches first QF in 7 years

The Bernard Tomic resurgence continued in spectacular fashion on Wednesday night at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.

Competing as a No. 171-ranked lucky loser at the hard-court ATP 250 event in Los Cabos, the 33-year-old Tomic upset fourth seed Karen Khachanov 6-2, 6-4 to reach his first tour-level quarter-final since 2019. Tomic, a four-time ATP Tour champion who reached his career high of No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings in 2016, converted four of eight break points he earned to ease past Khachanov, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

By racing past home qualifier Alex Hernandez for the loss of just one game in the first round and now upsetting Khachanov, Tomic has built on the recent success he has enjoyed at ATP Challenger level. The Australian lifted his biggest title since 2018 just 11 days ago at the Lincoln Challenger and revealed after that win that he had been contemplating retiring this season, but that he would “have to reassess a few things now”.

Tomic’s victory against World No. 28 Khachanov was his biggest by PIF ATP Ranking since he defeated then-No. 13 Fabio Fognini to claim his most recent ATP Tour title in Chengdu in 2018. The Australian has not contested a tour-level quarter-final since Atlanta in July 2019, but he will on Thursday end that wait when he takes on former champion Cameron Norrie in Los Cabos.

Tomic will aim to maintain his hard-court momentum on Mexico’s Pacific Coast on Thursday night, when he and Norrie will contest their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. The fifth-seeded Briton Norrie, who lifted the Los Cabos trophy in 2021, downed James Duckworth 6-4, 6-4 to seal his quarter-final spot.