Great Britain’s Jack Pinnington Jones is through to his first ATP Tour quarter-final as he continued his superb run at the Dallas Open.
The 22-year-old, who had to come through two rounds of qualifying to make the tournament’s main draw, followed up his stunning victory over Italy’s world number 20 Flavio Cobolli by beating American Eliot Spizzirri to reach the last eight.
Pinnington Jones, ranked 181st in the world, overcame world number 68 Spizzirri in three sets, prevailing 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4).
He will face former US Open champion Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals on Friday.
Pinnington Jones completed his junior season at Texas Christian University in May but opted against returning for a final year in order to pursue a full-time tennis career.
After losing his first qualifying match at the Australian Open in January, Pinnington Jones reached the final at the Soma Bay challenger event in Egypt before embarking on his four-match winning run in Dallas.
He is set to climb 43 places to 138th in the world after reaching the quarter-finals, and could enter the top 110 with victory over Cilic.
Elsewhere, Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina and top seed Iga Swiatek both suffered shock defeats at the Qatar Open.
World number three Rybakina lost 7-5 4-6 6-4 to Canada’s Victoria Mboko, while Swiatek won the first set but fell to a 2-6 6-4 7-5 defeat by Maria Sakkari.