Seeds falling, sun scorching and a wolf on the hunt… where are we? Tiburon Challenger of course!
It’s only the second day of the tournament and I’m in need of a couple of extra layers of polarization on my sunglasses, the groundstrokes are blistering out here!
Main Draw Singles
First up, Marcelo Arevalo draws an early morning Tiburon crowd who cheered him to victory. No surprises there, Marcelo’s experience no match for qualifier Evan Zhu, winning 6-3 6-4.
USTA Wildcard Brandon Nakashima impresses with a two-set victory over Martin Redlicki 6-3 6-3
Another USTA Wildcard, Oliver Crawford, came out of the gates hot against Israel’s Edan Lesham winning the first set 7-6. Lesham rallied, the calm competitor that he is, and won the next two sets 6-4 6-4.
Highlights of the Day
At 4:25 pm we saw Donald Young take on Ernesto Escobedo, definitely one of the highlight matches of the day. An amazing crowd had formed around Centre Court awaiting this duel. First set – no contest – Escobedo 6-1 in rapid time.
The ATP trainer is called by Young and a medical timeout follows.
Escobedo paces the back of the court like a caged animal as Young receives a rigorous massage of the left shoulder.
‘Time’ is called and the match continues – but not for long. Yong shortly retires with injury, Escobedo advances.
Meanwhile, on Court 1 play between Michail Pervolarakis and Emilio Gomez is heating up! Pervolarakis slides into a forehand pass down the line, follows it up with another incredible pass and draws a double fault to break and go back on serve vs Gomez 4-5 in the first set. Solid serve game.
Pervolarakis takes the first set, amazing effort after trailing by quite some distance. The second set went swiftly the way of Gomez 6-0! What happened?! Gomez raised his level, eliminated all unforced errors, combined with four flat tires on the Pervolarakis rig and off sails Emilio into the 3rd round, 5-7 6-0 6-4.
Main Draw Doubles
The Tommy Paul/Peter Polansky vs Maxime Cressy/Jamie Cerretani doubles match was over in short order, with Cerretani and Cressy coming up just short of sending Paul and Polansky home on their bicycle 6-0 6-1 to Cressy/Cerretani.
To wrap up a wonderful days tennis at the Tiburon Challenger Chris Eubanks and Mitchell Krueger came back from a set down to beat Gonzalo Escobar and Roberto Quiroz, 6-7(7) 6-4 10-2.
Losing the first set in a tiebreaker, Chris and Mitchell rallied in the second set leveling the match a set apiece.
Escobar held his serve for the first point in the 10 point tiebreak, which is played in lieu of a full third set in doubles.
With the doubles rules including no-ad scoring and the third set super tiebreak things can happen quickly out there, and they certainly did with Eubanks and Mitchell winning the next 9 points in a row … 9- 1. Conceding only one more point the Americans move into the second round.
Considering the fact that if you lose the first round in Doubles you do not earn any ATP points, they had reason to be happy with the victory. 18 points in the bag… and into the second round they go.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow is a day of Champions as we see our No. 1 seed Tommy Paul, No. 2 seed Denis Kudla, No.3 seed Marcos Giron, 2016 Champion Darian King, 2013 Champion Peter Polansky as well as big-hitting Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis all take the court in what is poised to be one of the most exciting days so far.
Thank you to all the volunteers and ball people that have helped so far, everyone has done such an amazing job! It has been hot out there and we are short on ball people. Please, if you are able to, come on up to the upper court volunteer station and give it a go out on the courts. Not only do you receive a stylish USTA t-shirt and complimentary lunch, but you also get the best seat in the house!
Anyone who is able to help out, please don’t hesitate, you do not need experience as we have incredible trainers who’ll be able to show you the ropes in minutes!
I hope to see you courtside!
Full Results | September 24, 2019
Men’s Singles, Second Round
[4] E. Gomez (ECU) d. M. Pervolarakis (GRE) 57 60 64
[5] M. Torpegaard (DEN) d. R. Peniston (GBR) 46 64 63
G. Escobar (ECU) d. [11] M. Krueger (USA) 76(7) 63
[14] T. Kwiatkowski (USA) d. [PR] C. Gomez-Herrera (ESP) 64 64
[15] E. Escobedo (USA) d. D. Young (USA) 61 42 Retired
Men’s Singles, First Round
H. Gaston (FRA) d. E. Song (USA) 36 64 64
S. Bangoura (USA) d. [Q] M. Geerts (BEL) 64 75
[WC] B. Nakashima (USA) d. M. Redlicki (USA) 63 63
M. Arevalo (ESA) d. [Q] E. Zhu (USA) 63 64
E. Leshem (ISR) d. [WC] O. Crawford (USA) 67(3) 64 64
J. Wolf (USA) d. A. Sarkissian (USA) 67(3) 76(3) 64
R. Quiroz (ECU) d. [WC] O. Styler (CZE) 36 64 64
Men’s Doubles, First Round
J. Cerretani (USA)/M. Cressy (USA) d. T. Paul (USA)/P. Polansky (CAN) 60 61
C. Eubanks (USA)/M. Krueger d. G. Escobar (ECU)/R. Quiroz (ECU) 67(7) 64 10-2
