Wildcard Norrie battles past Sousa to clinch quarter-final place in Auckland

British No 2 Cameron Norrie secured his quarter-final spot at the ASB Classic in Auckland with a straight-sets win over Joao Sousa.

The 23-year-old wildcard battled past his Portuguese opponent 7-6(5), 6-4 in an hour and 35 minutes and will next play American Taylor Fritz, who upset top seed John Isner on Tuesday.

David Ferrer, who will retire from tennis in May, suffered a setback after he withdrew from his match against fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta due to injury with the score at 1-1. German Jan-lennard Struff awaits Carreno Busta following a routine 6-2, 6-1 victory over New Zealander Rubin Statham.

Second seed Fabio Fognini saw off Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) to set up a meeting with Philipp Kohlschreiber, a 6-4, 6-4 victor against France’s Ugo Humbert.

Top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas eased into the quarterfinals of the Sydney International with a straight-sets victory over lucky loser Guido Andreozzi. The 20-yearold Greek, ranked 15th in the world, needed just an hour and 15 minutes to overcome the Argentinian 6-3, 6-4. He will face eighth seed Andreas Seppi in the last eight after the Italian defeated Martin Klizan 7-6(2), 6-2.

Third seed Diego Schwartzman also progressed, beating Spanish qualifier Guillermo Garcia-lopez 6-2, 6-3.

Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka awaits Argentinian Schwartzman following his 6-3, 6-1 success against Andrey Rublev.

Last year’s runner-up Alex de Minaur, seeded fifth, pleased the home crowd by beating American Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-6(5) to set up an all-australian quarter-final with Jordan Thompson.