Zhang Zhizhen of China defeated Flavio Cobolli of Italy 6-1, 7-6(5) in the singles match at the Hamburg Open in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday, advancing to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Zhang and Cobolli had played each other twice before Thursday with a 1-1 record. The Italian beat Zhang in the last meeting at the Firenze Open on the hard court in October 2022, but Zhang won their first match on the clay court at the Biella 6 Challenger in May 2021.

As the No. seed of the Hamburg Open, Zhang displayed excellent dominance in the first set, which he won with three breaks. He then started the second set with a 3-0 lead, but Cobolli was resilient enough to drag the competition into a tie-break.

In the end, Zhang sealed the deal and himself a spot in the quarterfinals. His opponent will be the tournament's top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany. Zverev knocked out Hugo Gaston of France 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Thursday. It will be the first match between him and Zhang.

The other three quarterfinals will be Francisco Cerundolo (Argentina) vs. Pedro Martinez (Spain), Luciano Darderi (Italy) vs. Sebastian Baez (Argentina), and Arthur Fils (France) vs. Holger Rune (Denmark).