BINGHAMTON, July 20, 2016
During an extremely long day that witnessed 14 matches and over 10 hours of action, six US-Americans, including third-seed Stefan Kozlov advanced into the round of 16 at the 23rd Levene Gouldin & Thompson (LGT) Tennis Challenger. Play on Tuesday also provided three upsets as top-seeded Quentin Halys (FRA), No. 5 Noah Rubin (USA) and No. 8 Tommy Paul all dropped their opening-round matches.
The third-seeded Kozlov, who is the highest ranked American in the field at No. 163, rallied to defeat wild card entrant Dennis Nevolo (USA), 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. The three-setter was one of seven matches to go the distance on Tuesday. Fellow US-Americans Mitchell Krueger, Nicolas Meister, Daniel Nguyen and wild card Thai-Son Kwiatkowski each advanced in straight sets, while Sekou Bangoura upended Paul in three-sets to end the 19-year old’s run in the singles draw.
Halys fell in a three-set battle to 26-year old Brydan Klein (GBR), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3. Klein, a semifinalist at last year’s LG&T Challenger, utilized a powerful service game that included 14 aces to dispose of the 19-year old. Rubin, who was nursing an ankle injury, was defeated by alternate Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain, 6-3, 6-2, in just over an hour.
Australian and No. 4 seed John-Patrick Smith rallied late against Liam Broady (GBR) in a three-set match that took two hours and 46 minutes. Smith dropped the first set in a tiebreaker before capturing the second, 6-4. Down 5-2 in the third and deciding frame, Smith rattled off five straight games to win the bout, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5. However, the Smith/Broady match was not the longest of the day as a qualifier Erik Crepaldi (ITA) outlasted Ireland’s Sam Barry, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(3), in a three hour and four minute marathon.
In other singles action featuring seeded players Darian King (No. 6) and Andrey Golubev (No. 9) moved on to the round of 16. King and Golubev needed three-sets to hold off their opponents while the No. 7 seed Guilherme Clezar and qualifier Jose Statham were tied at one-set apiece 7-6(2), 5-7 before their match was suspended by darkness.
US-American lucky loser Peter Kobelt got disqualified in the second set of his match against Hiroki Moriya, hitting a ball in frustration all over the court, which eventually hit a ball boy.
When a lucky loser gets unlucky pic.twitter.com/lykHc3tGyf
— jonesy (@vYaYv) 19. Juli 2016
Main draw competition will continue tomorrow at 10 a.m. with both singles and doubles action on all three courts. Binghamton University men’s head tennis coach Nick Zieziula and doubles partner William Mendler will be the featured match of the day when they take on fellow US-Americans Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Tommy Paul on Center Court no earlier than 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 19 – RESULTS
Singles – Main Draw Round One
Mitchell Krueger, United States def. (WC) Jared Hiltzik, United States, 6-3, 6-3,
(WC) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, United States def. Matt Reid, Australia, 6-4, 6-3,
Nicolas Meister, United States def. Benjamin Mitchell, Australia, 6-3, 7-6(3),
(Alt) Lloyd Glasspool, Great Britain def. Noah Rubin (5), United States, 6-3, 6-2,
Daniel Nguyen, United States def. (WC) Michael Mmoh, 6-2, 6-1,
John-Patrick Smith (4), Australia def. Liam Broady, Great Britain, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5,
Stefan Kozlov (3), United States def. (WC) Dennis Nevolo, United States, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, Darian King (6), Barbados def. (LL) Finn Tearney, New Zealand, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0
Andrey Golubev (9), Kazakhstan def. (Q) Evan King, United States, 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2, Brydan Klein, Great Britain def. Quentin Halys (1), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3,
(Q) Erik Crepaldi, Italy, def. Sam Barry, Ireland def. 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(3),
Hiroki Moriya, Japan def. (LL) Peter Kobelt, United States, 6-0, 4-1, won by default
Sekou Bangoura, United States def. Tommy Paul (8), United States, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1,
Guilherme Clezar (7), Brazil vs. (Q) Jose Statham, New Zealand, 7-6(2), 5-7, suspended due to darkness
