A number of seeded players fell in Brescia, as a number of shocks took place there. Kyle Edmund continued his strong form on clay, but another Brit fell in Champaign on the Challenger tour Wednesday.
Montevideo: Overnight saw a mixed tournament, as Carlos Berlocq scored the infamous double bagel over Dario Acosta. Fortunately, fans were treated to some typically long contests. Surprisingly, one of these involved fifth seed and champion of last week’s event in Buenos Aires, Kyle Edmund. He did eventually get through, but only after a mighty shock in the first set. He recovered to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Guido Pella also survived a battle with Maximo Gonzalez, winning 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. Pella managed to win despite losing serve five times across the match.
Thursday has already seen sixth seed Facundo Arguello depart after a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Andrej Martin. Other matches include (predicted winner in bold) Michael Linzer vs Inigo Cervantes, Nicolas Kicker vs Carlos Berlocq, and Pablo Cuevas vs Gastao Elias.
Brescia: The tournament in Italy opened up significantly, as a number of seeds suffered early exits. Top seed Sergiy Stakhovsky led the way, falling 7-6 6-2 to former top 100 player Igor Sijsling. Benjamin Becker and Michael Berrer also fell, Becker to Luka Vanni, who won 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. Marco Chiudinelli accounted for Berrer, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Though not seeded, Farrukh Dustov’s victory over Lukas Lacko is another suprise result, the Kazakh digging deep to win 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.
Thursday: As things stand, there will be only one seeded player in the semi-finals, as the two remaining seeds are scheduled to face each other in the quarters. Dustin Brown still needs to beat Salvatore Caruso if he is to fcae Ilya Marchenko. Other matches: Norbert Gombos vs Luca Vanni, Igor Sijsling vs Farrukh Dustov, Marco Chiundinelli vs Mirza Basic
Champaign: Dan Evans win streak was stopped at six, as Taylor Fritz won a three set battle, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Francis Tiafoe’s reward for knocking out Alejandro Falla, was merely to open up the draw for others, as he lost 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 to Eric Quigley, ranked more than 100 places behind Tiafoe. Second seed Austin Krajicek moved into the quarter-finals with another straight-sets win, this time over Adrien Bossel 7-6, 6-3.
Thursday: Mitchell Krueger vs John Patrick-Smith, Ryan Harrison vs Mackenzie Mcdonald, and Blaz Rola vs Clay Thompson.
Yokohama: Last week John Millman looked impregnable as he stormed to the Kobe title without dropping a set. This week he departs Yokohama having not won a set. Such is the life of a tennis player. The top seed was dismissed by Alexander Kudryavtsev 6-4 6-4. All other seeds moved through as Hiroki Moriya, Yoshihito Nishioka, Go Soeda, and Taro Daniel won without dropping a set. Second seed Matthew Ebden only needed to win one set, his opponent Franko Skugor retiring after losing the first 6-1. Young Australian Omar Jasika, of whom big things are expected, defeated China’s Yan Bai 6-1, 6-4.
Thursday: Some interesting match-ups. Omar Jasika vs Taro Daniel, and Brydan Klein vs Tatsumo Ito.
