Tiafoe continues late-season surge to reach quarter-finals at Paris Masters

American Frances Tiafoe, the No 16 seed, defeated Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3, 7-6 (5) to advance to the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters at the Accor Arena on Thursday afternoon.

De Minaur had taken out former world No 1 Daniil Medvedev in the previous round but Tiafoe hammered 14 aces as he marched into the last eight.

Tiafoe, ranked No 21, will play the winner of the match between French wildcard Gilles Simon and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 8 seed, next.

A semi-finalist at the US Open, the result continues the American’s late-season surge which has taken him inside the world’s top 20 for the first time.

Earlier in the tournament, the American won against Italian qualifier Lorenzo Sonego (6-4, 6-4) and Briton Jack Draper (6-3, 7-5).

De Minaur, ranked No 25, edged out American Sebastian Korda (6-4, 4-6, 6-4) and then upset Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No 4 seed (6-4, 2-6, 7-5) in the previous rounds.

Paris Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Accor Arena, EUR 5.415.410, most recent results first):

• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Tommy Paul
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Corentin Moutet
• Novak Djokovic vs. Karen Khachanov
• Gilles Simon vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Holger Rune vs. Andrey Rublev
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Grigor Dimitrov: thursday
• Lorenzo Musetti beat Casper Ruud (3): 4-6, 6-4, 6-4