We’re down to the finals weekend, after an awesome week of tennis at the First Republic Tiburon Challenger!
Today, the forehand Thanasi Kokkinakis annihilated directly at his opponent in the first point of the match created a vapor trail that lingered well into the second game of the match! 100 mph off that wing is fairly common for the young Aussie, and when released as a heat-seeking missile it can send a really clear message early on in an encounter like this.
The tactic seemed to work as Maxime Cressy double-faulted two out of the next three points. But only fleetingly as he held serve and changed sides 1 – 0. Cressy has a huge serve of his own and realizes he’s going to have to rain down bombs to hold serve. Kokkinakis knows he can handle Cressy from the baseline with relative ease adding additional pressure to the Cressy delivery. And while he served well, he could not keep it up.
Kokkinakis wins the first set with one break of serve and cruises into the semifinals with a 6-4 6-2.
Next up… Thai-Son Kwiatkowski! This guy’s got fire in the belly! The come-back kid has rallied from a double break down two matches in a row now. Today he won the first set 7-5, a well contested 12 games.
Ice-man Brandon Nakashima came back with a vengeance and it took all of 35 minutes for Kwiatkowski to find himself down 3 – 0 on the third set. Double break!
We’ve seen many a player in this predicament start researching jobs at the United States Postal Service on changeovers, however, feisty Thai-Son had no intention of mailing anything in and rallied like a champ to even the score 6-6. Final set tiebreak!
Arguably the match of the tournament so far. Both players squandered match points before Nakashima netted a routine backhand from the forecourt. Thai-son completes yet another dramatic comeback and wins 7-5 1-6 7-6(6).
Up next Thai-son faces the heavy-hitting Aussie Kokkinakis in tomorrows first semifinals. Two electric personalities going head to head … this is a ‘must-see’ match!
No.1 seed Tommy Paul had his work cut out for himself this evening as he ran into the experienced Gonzalo Escobar.
Paul won the first set 6-4 and went on vacation. Escobar didn’t mind as he leveled the score 6-1 in the second set, and followed it up with an early break in the third. Paul checked back in, rallied some much-needed crowd support and broke Escobar to go up 4-2… serving for the match at 5-4.
Paul’s forehand purchases a cheap ticket on a rollercoaster ride, crushing two massive winners and then offering up two very average freebies, squanders a match point… 5 games all.
Escobar and Paul serve one more time each in windy, chilly and swirly conditions… tiebreaker!
Exactly what the crowd ordered, a really exciting finish to an awesome days tennis. Paul played a tough breaker and pulled out the win 6-4 1-6 7-6 (2).
Tomorrow Paul will take on the tough No. 4 seed Emilio Gomez in the last match of the day.
These guys have had a bit of everything this week from 90+ degree heat, to cold and windy evenings.
Looks like we are in for a windy day tomorrow, so bring a jacket or blanket to stay warm. Either way, we’re in for fireworks, I look forward to seeing you all at Centre Court.
Full Results | September 27, 2019
Men’s Singles – Quarterfinals
[1] T. Paul (USA) d G. Escobar (ECU) 6-4 1-6 7-6(2)
[4] E. Gomez (ECU) d S. Bangoura (USA) 6-3 1-6 6-2
[8] T. Kokkinakis (AUS) d [16] M. Cressy (USA) 6-4 6-2
[14] T. Kwiatkowski (USA) d [WC] B. Nakashima (USA) 7-5 1-6 7-6(6)
Men’s Doubles – Quarterfinals
J. Aragone (USA) / D. King (BAR) d [1] M. Arevalo (ESA) / H. Reese (USA) 6-3 5-7 11-9
[3] R. Galloway (USA) / R. Maytin (VEN) d J. Fruttero (USA) / D. Kudla (USA) 5-7 6-3 10-6
