There was a number of shocks in the San Francisco Challenger first round on Tuesday, as a group of favoured players failed to make it out of the first round.
Taylor Fritz was undoubtedly the highest-profile casualty, as the second seed and NextGen star lost in three sets to Chinese qualifier Zhe Zhang 64 46 62.
It was a good day for qualifiers overall as three of the four won, with the only defeat coming in a valiant three set display.
Eric Quigley is a player built in a similar mould to Tim Smyczek, a supremely hard worker. Yet Smyczek is horribly out-of-form, and Quigley was able to secure a massive win 63 46 75 in one hour and forty-three minutes.
Young Canadian Bryden Schnur continued the trend, knocking out Elias Ymer 76 64. Raymond Sarmiento was the only unsuccessful qualifier in the first round, but he still gave a very creditable performance in a 67 61 64 defeat to Denis Kudla.
There was another disappointing defeat for an American seed, as Jared Donaldson went down 63 76 to John-Patrick Smith. Donaldson has really struggled this year, having lost in the first round of the Australian Open, and in Maui immediately after.
Top seed Frances Tiafoe managed to put his injuries woes from Dallas behind him, as he beat wildcard Bradley Klahn 64 64. There was a big win for former NCAA champion Ryan Shane, as the wildcard beat Salvatore Caruso in straight sets 76 64.
Marco Trungelliti failed to match his quarter-final run from Dallas, as the Argentinian fell to seventh seed Vasek Pospisil 76 36 64. It was an excellent effort from Pospisil, who was clearly hurt during Canada’s unsuccessful Davis Cup clash with Great Britain over the weekend. Pospisil will face a tough task in the second round, as he faces 6’11 American Reilly Opelka, who defeated Sekou Bangoura 63 64.
There were no problems for fifth seed Henri Laaksonen, as the Swiss cruised through 64 63 over Australian Matthew Barton. Sixth seed Peter Polansky was also successful after smashing the badly out-of-form Dennis Novikov 62 62.
Mackenzie McDonald might have been the last direct acceptance to this event, but the reigning NCAA singles and doubles champion proved he was worth his spot in the draw as he comfortably beat Kimmer Coppejans 62 62.
There was also wins for Michael Mmoh and Mikhail Kukushkin.
