Kyrgios v Coric set for Estoril quarters

Birthday boy Nick Kyrgios has marched through to the quarterfinals of the Estoril Open claycourt event thanks to a hard-fought 7-6(4) 7-5 win over Inigo Cervantes.

It took the second-seeded Australian, who was presented with a cake to mark his 21st birthday by the tournament’s ball girls, nearly an hour and 15 minutes to see off the Spaniard.

He’ll face Croatia’s Borna Coric on Thursday for a place in the semifinals, in a battle between two of the ATP World Tour’s #NextGen stars.

“There are 50 things I would rather be doing on my birthday,” Kyrgios said after his win.

Coric earlier beat Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil 6-3 4-6 6-1.

Fifth-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain beat Stephane Robert 6-3 7-6(3) to advance to the last eight.

The 47th-ranked Spaniard will next face France’s Benoit Paire, who rallied to beat Kyle Edmund of Britain 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-3 in the late match.

Another Spaniard, Pablo Carreno Busta, eased past countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-1 6-3 to reach the second round.

Verdasco acknowledged his victory, just 48 hours earlier over Lucas Pouille in the Nastase Tiriac Trophy final in Bucharest, Romania had left him “a little tired from a week of tough matches.”