France Tiafoe made a fast start to his grass-court season on Wednesday with a strong serving performance in his BOSS OPEN debut. The third-seeded American earned a 7-6(2), 6-4 win against Jiri Lehecka to advance to the quarter-finals at the Stuttgart ATP 250 event, where he will meet Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.

It is Tiafoe’s 29th tour-level quarter-final and his third on grass after he reached that stage at The Queen’s Club in 2018 and 2021. The American improved to 24-9 on the season with his latest victory, his best result of 2023 coming on home soil with his Houston title run in April.

The 25-year-old saved all three break points against him in his Stuttgart opener with the help of nine aces and an 84 per cent win rate (37/44) on first serve. After running away with the first-set tie-break, Tiafoe converted his lone break chance of the match to edge in front at 5-4 in the second set. In serving out the match, he erased two break points before clinching victory on his second match point.

Tiafoe was back on the court for the first time after his four-set defeat to eventual semi-finalist Alexander Zverev in the Roland Garros third round. The American defeated Filip Krajinovic and Aslan Karatsev in Paris before being turned back in an entertaining evening matchup against Zverev in which he lost two tie-breaks.

With his victory in Stuttgart, Tiafoe has already bettered his grass-court ATP Tour results from last season, when he exited in the opening round at The Queen’s Club and Eastbourne. But his game clicked in time for Wimbledon last year, where he enjoyed a career-best run to the fourth round before a five-set defeat to David Goffin.