DC Open ATP Day Four Round-Up | Alex de Minaur seals generational battle with Cruz Hewitt as Ben Shelton survives

Alex de Minaur has ended the run of Cruz Hewitt in the big result of the day, while Ben Shelton escaped against Ugo Humbert on the fourth day of action at the DC Open in Washington.

De Minaur was facing off against Hewitt in the big battle of the day as the former who watched Hewitt grew up had the unexpected in having to face off against him. But it was all business as he produced a clinical display to see off Hewitt 6-2, 6-3 to return to the Quarter-Finals of the ATP 500 event. After their 61-minute clash, they shared a warm embrace at the net as Lleyton Hewitt watched on.

De Minaur had to dig deep to overcome Stefanos Tsitsipas in his opener on Wednesday earning what was just a second win in 14 Head to Head meetings with the Greek. Against Hewitt, he was a lot more efficient as he improved to 29-14 on the season with his net play in particular being a big deal for the Aussie ace.

Hewitt has grown up around De Minaur of course with the former's father being the captain of the Davis Cup and United Cup teams under the captaincy. For Hewitt though, the silver lining is that he has risen to World No.360 up 252 spots.

De MInaur will next face off against Brandon Nakashima who upset seventh seed Jakub Mensik earlier today. It was a 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 win to reach his second consecutive Washington Quarter-Final. Nakashima holds a 2-1 advantage in the Head to Head including a Quarter-FInal win in June at Queen's. De Minaur's lone win against the American came in Washington last year before he went on to win the title.

"It was definitely weird," De Minaur said in his on-court interview. "I knew I was going to play him on the Tour some day, but I didn't actually expect it to be this week. It was an amazing feeling. Even all the lead up, seeing all the incredible pictures that we have together and how we've both grown up. I'm glad I managed to get through, but I'm sure we're going to have many battles in the years to come."

While as expected Ugo Humbert v Ben Shelton went all the way to a decider and it was won by the latter who continues his charge a week before he has to defend his Canadian Open crown. He won through 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.

The opening set went the way of Humbert with very minimal break chances between the pair apart from two games. Shelton survived break points at 4-3 and then the same for Humbert as he went up for 5-4 up. But Humbert went up a set winning the set 7-3 to take the lead against Shelton and to put him all at sea.

Shelton survived break points to begin set two. Shelton broke to make it 3-1 and then held serve to go 4-1 up. That set up the charge as he nearly went 5-1 up but Humbert survived only for Shelton to win the set anyway.

Shelton broke for 3-2. But Humbert broke back for 3-3. Shelton survived yet another break chance as he then went one away at 5-4. He broke to go one away before sealing the win at 6-4. He claimed it on advantage to end it.

Alejandro Tabilo also sealed the win in two sets to move through. He saw off Terence Atmane seeing off the Frenchman in two.

He won 6-3, 7-6 with the latter claiming it in a tie-break to seal his progression. Onto the Quarter-Finals we go in Washington.