STOCKTON, October 6, 2016

The third day of main draw action was full on competitive second round matches at the $100,000 Stockton ATP Challenger as the second seed, Tim Smyczek fell to fellow US-American Mackenzie McDonald.

McDonald took down the tournament’s number two Tim Smyczek ,winning in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. The 21-year-old Los Angeles resident won 78 per cent of his first service points and broke serve four times to advance in one hour and 18 minutes.

“I have way more time on my hands to focus on only tennis, I am getting better quicker and I am enjoying it a lot,” stated McDonald, the former UCLA men’s tennis player and recent NCAA singles and doubles champ.  McDonald will continue his singles play on Friday.

Frances Tiafoe got past qualifier Dennis Nevolo in straight sets, 7-6(6), 6-3. The third seeded teenager will next take on Alessandro Giannessi. The 26-year-old Italian beat Daniel Nguyen 4–6, 7-6, 7-5 in almost three hours of play. In another match of two US-Americans, Denis Kudla came back after losing the first set to defeat Brian Baker, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5. The encounter lasted two hours and 40 minutes.

Main draw matches Thursday will feature US-American Noah Rubin, who won the 2014 Wimbledon junior title to go with his Boys’ 18s National Championship crown, along with fellow US-American Michael Mmoh, the 2014 Orange Bowl doubles champion.

In doubles action, former All-West Coast Conference doubles team of Sem Verbeek and Jose Chamba Gomez took the number one seeded duo to a match tie breaker after winnign the first set 7-6(4) and losing the second set 6-2. Verbeek and Chamba Gomez would dominate the tie breaker 10-5 to win it in front of the hometown crowd. Also advancing onto the quarterfinals are the lone US-American pair of Bjorn Fratangelo and Tommy Paul, who overtook the Canadian duo of Philip Bester and Peter Polansky with ease beating the Candians 6-2, 6-2. Fratangelo and Paul will face off against Verbeek and Chamba Gomez Thursday on Stadium Court.