Australian wildcard Alex Bolt plans to keep riding an emotional wave of home-town support which helped him swamp an Adelaide International title fancy.
Adelaide resident Bolt toppled German seventh seed Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-4 on Wednesday to advance into the quarter-finals at Memorial Drive.
Bolt, born in Murray Bridge, about 75km east of Adelaide, is the sole Australian remaining after compatriot James Duckworth was outgunned by second seed Felix Auger-Aliassim.
The Canadian won 6-3 7-6 (7-0) to set up a Thursday night quarter-final against Bolt, the world No. 157.
Bolt made light of the 120 ranking spots between himself and Struff, ranked 37, in a commanding performance before a parochial crowd.
"It's always good playing in your home country, let alone your home town," Bolt told AAP.
"To have the support that I have had throughout the tournament so far has been really cool ... I'm feeling confident and hopefully I can keep riding this wave."
Earlier, sleep-deprived Russian Andrey Rublev downplayed his Australian Open chances despite his hot early-season form continuing in Adelaide.
Rublev, on three hours' sleep, advanced to the quarter-finals with a comprehensive 6-3 6-3 second-round win against American Sam Querrey.
The world No.18 arrived in Adelaide after claiming his third ATP title in Doha last week.
Rublev's career-high 38 ATP wins last year included inflicting the quickest loss in 15 years on Roger Federer - a 62-minute blitz in Cincinnati.
But while hoping his upward curve extends deep into the Australian Open, starting Monday in Melbourne, the 22-year-old reckons he's still well shy of joining elite company.
"It's (an) amazing feeling to be top 20 for the first time," Rublev said.
"There are still so many things that I can improve; there are so many things I need to improve.
"You can (see with) Roger (Federer), (Rafael Nadal), (Novak) Djokovic, all the other top players, how mentally they are strong - me, compared to them, I'm far away."
Rublev, the third seed in Adelaide, will play Brit Daniel Evans in a quarter-final.
American Tommy Paul trounced Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-1 6-2 to book a quarter-final against Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, who beat his compatriot Jaume Munar 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta downed Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3 6-2 to set up a last-eight meeting with South African qualifier Lloyd Harris, who upset Serbian Laslo Djere 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.
Australian Associated Press
