Paire saves four match points to stave off Cilic, Evans defeats Fognini in thriller at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

Among them was Dan Evans who overcame fourth seed Fabio Fognini on his sixth match point in a match that lasted nearly three hours at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

He ended up coming from a set down against the Italian ace to register another classy victory to go alongside some other highlights to start the year such as Alex de Minaur at the ATP Cup and Karen Khachanov in Rotterdam.

Benoit Paire also came through a thrilling tie against Marin Cilic also coming from a set down to win through in a real close affair which could have gone either way and finished up 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 in favour of the Frenchman who saved four match points en route. Next up is Richard Gasquet in an all French battle.

Other victors included qualifiers Yasataka Uchiyama who came from a set down to ease past Yen-Hsun Lu and Dennis Novak who similarly had no real issues getting past Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-4, 6-3.

Alexander Bublik also continued his excellent form as of late by defeating Hubert Hurkacz in a 6-2, 7-5 victory. For Hurkacz it is a bit concerning considering he has failed to win now in his last two matches after starting his year so strong in Australia, an interesting couple of weeks will now await.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert is also through and will take on Dan Evans tomorrow in a potentially brilliant clash after defeating Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-2.

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