It was bad day session for the Americans who took to the court in Auckland. Top seed and defending champion Jack Sock suffered a shock loss to Peter Gojowczyk, whilst Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson also endured early exits.
Sock played the German World No.65 Gojowczyk, who had knocked out American Tim Smyczek in the first round. Early on there were no indications that the heavy favourite Sock would have any issues. He broke in the fifth game to take the early lead. What then followed was a collapse, as he failed to win another game in the set.
Gojowczyk reeled off four straight games to take the set. The decisive break came in game eight as Gojowczyk broke to love before serving out.
The second set followed a similar pattern only there was no early break for Sock. Gojowczyk broke twice en route to winning the final four games of the set and match.
Gojowczyk will face fellow unseeded opponent Robin Haase in the quarter-finals. Haase defeated lucky loser Lukas Lacko. Lacko had taken the place of 7th seed Andrey Rublev.
Sock was not the first American to lose in Auckland on Wednesday. Steve Johnson failed to maintain his excellent level of play from the first set. His opponent, 5th seed Roberto Bautista-Agut, rallied and eventually emerged the comfortable winner 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. Bautista-Agut moves to a 5-0 record in the head-to-head with Johnson.
3rd seed Sam Querrey made it a miserable day for Americans in New Zealand as he was beaten by Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-7, 7-6. Vesely earned the lone break of the match in the first set. Querrey saved match points in the second set tie break and at 4-5 in the decider, but Vesely edged the deciding tie break 7-5. Vesely survived 24 aces from Querrey’s racket for the win.
Vesely will face Bautista-Agut in the quarter-finals.
7th seed David Ferrer wasted little time on court. He defeated last year’s runner up Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-2. The veteran Spaniard waits for the winner of the match between John Isner and Hyeon Chung.
