WTA/ATP wrap: Puig, Sock turn the corner

Monica Puig has backed up her victory over No.1 seed Angelique Kerber with another win to advance to the quarterfinals of the WTA event in Luxembourg.

Puig on Tuesday won her Rio 2016 Olympic gold-medal rematch with Kerber, and on Wednesday beat Alison Van Uytvanck in two tiebreaks to advance to her first quarterfinal since Acapulco in early March.

.@MonicaAce93 defeats Van Uytvanck 7-6(2), 7-6(1)!

She advances to the @iwtp_lux quarterfinals to face Broady! pic.twitter.com/vQ3x0iplx9

— WTA (@WTA) October 18, 2017

She faces Brit Naomi Broady for a shot at just her second semifinal of 2017 (she reached the same stage in Doha in February).

Puig has struggled since her gold medal breakthrough last year; her win over Van Uytvanck put her season win-loss record at 26-22.

FEATURE: in appreciation of Caroline Wozniacki

Just two seeds remain among the last eight at the International-level event; No.2 Kiki Bertens, who advanced over an injured Andrea Petkovic, and fifth seed Elise Mertens, a three-set winner over Madison Brengle.

ATP Stockholm: Sock wins first match since August

American Jack Sock made a welcome return to the winner’s circle with a 6-4 6-4 win over Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday.

Sock, who as the third seed received a first-round bye, snapped a five-match losing streak dating back to the ATP Masters event in Montreal.

Since then he lost first round matches at Cincinnati, the US Open, Beijing and Shanghai.

SMASHTALK: the real top five?

Sock has reached the final in Stockholm the previous two years and will next face No.6 seed Fabio Fognini in the quarters.

Fognini stopped Swedish wildcard Elias Ymer in a thriller, winning 6-4 3-6 7-6(7).

Ymer’s younger brother Mikael, also a wildcard, fell 1-6 7-5 6-4 to No.5 seed Mischa Zverev in round one.

Fernando Verdasco was another seed (at No.8) advancing to the last eight; he beat lucky loser Jurgen Zopp 6-4 6-2.

WTA Moscow: Mladenovic losing streak now at 10

Top seed Kristina Mldenovic’s second half of the season continued in nightmarish fashion with a loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Mladenovic received a first-round bye, and the second-round loss was her 10th straight, dating back to Washington DC.

The silver lining? The 6-2 2-6 6-3 loss was the first set Mladenovic had managed to win in that losing streak.

MLADENOVIC: I made a mistake with my schedule

Sasnovich will in the quarterfinals face Daria Kasatkina, who brushed aside Katerina Siniakova for the loss of just five games.

No.7 seed Julia Goerges is the only seed remaining at the Premier-level event; she beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-3 on Wednesday and will now meet Lesia Tsurenko, who upset No.2 seed CoCo Vandeweghe in three.

ATP Antwerp: Kyrgios bows out

No.3 seed Nick Kyrgios was the biggest casualty at the European Open in Antwerp, falling 6-7(3) 6-3 6-3 to local Ruben Bemelmans.

There were only four matches played at the ATP indoor event, and no other seeds were in action.

Joao Sousa and Julien Benneteau joined Bemelmans in the quarterfinals, while Steve Darcis won his first-round clash against an injured Cedrik-Marcel Stebe, who retired in the third set with a wrist inury.