INDIAN WELLS/STARNBERG, January 19, 2024
Three of the four second-round matches went the distance and were all close as two former NCAA singles champions kept up their winning ways in the desert at the Southern California Open ATP Challenger Tour 50 tournament being played at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
No. 6 seed Thai-Son Kwiatkowski – the 2017 Division I titlist from the University of Virginia – was the only one who moved into Friday’s quarterfinals in straight sets beating German Tim Handel, 6-3, 7-6 (6). Handel, 27, played his college tennis at Northern Arizona University. The 2019 NCAA champ from South Carolina, Paul Jubb, had to come back to fend off the stubborn qualifier from Florida Stefan Kozlov, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Irvine’s Omni Kumar sent Stanford sophomore Nishesh Basavareddy back to Palo Alto with a solid, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, scoreline.
For the second straight match, top-seeded doubles pairing Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac won the first set, dropped the second and then pulled out a 10-7 match tiebreaker, this time against Israel’s Yshai Oliel and Matias Soto from Chile. The San Diegans next draw third-seeded Markos Kalovelonis from Greece and Benjamin Lock from Zimbabwe in Friday’s semis.
Before his doubles was extended to the max, the singles wild card Seggerman lost a heartbreaker against No. 2 seed Marco Trungelliti from Argentina, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
Friday’s Look Ahead
It’s never easy playing a teammate. That’s the situation facing former USC Trojans Brandon Holt and Daniel Cukierman. Holt played at USC for four seasons from 2017 to 2020. As a sophomore, Holt welcomed his new teammate, Cukierman, who would ascend to the No. 1 ITA singles ranking in all of college tennis in the fall of 2019. Like Holt, Cukierman decided to forgo his final college season and turned pro. The two square off at 10 a.m. for a spot in Saturday’s semifinals.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA OPEN – INDIAN WELLS, USA$41,000 – 15-21 JANUARY 2024
RESULTS – JANUARY 18, 2024Singles – Second Round[2] M. Trungelliti (ARG) d [WC] R. Seggerman (USA) 75 36 76(4)[6] T. Kwiatkowski (USA) d T. Handel (GER) 63 76(6)O. Kumar (USA) d N. Basavareddy (USA) 46 64 62[PR] P. Jubb (GBR) d [Q] S. Kozlov (USA) 46 63 63
Doubles – Quarterfinals[1] R. Seggerman (USA) / P. Trhac (USA) d Y. Oliel (ISR) / M. Soto (CHI) 76(0) 67(4) 10-7[3] M. Kalovelonis (GRE) / B. Lock (ZIM) d [Alt] T. Handel (GER) / T. Whiting (USA) 62 62[Alt] D. King (BAR) / H. Reese (USA) d [4] M. Kiger (USA) / B. Sigouin (CAN) 64 64T. Kwiatkowski (USA) / A. Lawson (USA) d D. Cukierman (ISR) / R. Stepanov (ISR) 64 64
ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2024PC3 start 10:00 amD. Cukierman (ISR) vs [3] [WC] B. Holt (USA)[4] M. Krueger (USA) vs L. Tien (USA)[Alt] D. King (BAR) / H. Reese (USA) vs T. Kwiatkowski (USA) / A. Lawson (USA)
PC5 start 10:00 am[6] T. Kwiatkowski (USA) vs [2] M. Trungelliti (ARG)O. Kumar (USA) vs [PR] P. Jubb (GBR)[1] R. Seggerman (USA) / P. Trhac (USA) vs [3] M. Kalovelonis (GRE) / B. Lock (ZIM)
