TALLAHASSEE, April 26, 2017
Wild card Christian Harrison defeated Sekou Bangoura 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday, to advance to the second round of the $75,000 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, held at the Forestmeadows Athletic Center in Tallahassee.
In the opening set Bangoura fired in two aces and served well. He converted a break point and took the first set. In the second set Bangoura started to make errors and Harrison quickly capitalized on this and converted two break points to take the set 6-1. In the final and decisive set Harrison continued his momentum to close out the match 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 37 minutes.
Harrison now faces Andrea Arnaboldi as he looks to book a spot in the quarterfinals. The Italian qualifier defeated Jose Hernandez-Fernandez from the Domenican Republic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, winning his fourth match in just four days to advance to the second round.
Harrison is currently ranked No. 387 in the world and has played in just a handful of tournaments since July 2013 after suffering a series of injuries. In 2016, he qualified for the 2016 US Open, thus competing in his first-ever Grand Slam main draw. Earlier in the summer he won his first USTA Pro Circuit singles title at the $25,000 Futures in Champaign, Ill.
Harrison rose to prominence after he advanced to the doubles quarterfinals at the 2012 US Open with older brother and Top 50 player Ryan Harrison.
In the evening session, crowd favorite and Florida State alumni, Benjamin Lock, teamed up with US-American Evan King to take on Luke Bambridge and Mitchell Krueger. With the crowd cheering them on, the wild card duo took the first set 6-4, but Bambridge and Krueger rallied back to take the match 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
Shortly after, numer seven seed Stefan Kozlov took on Argentina’s Federico Coria. The US-American teenager took the opening set 6-3 in a rather normal fashion, before Coria took the second set 6-4. In the final and decisive set, Kozlov found his groove again and won five straight games to close out the match with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win. The 19-year old now faces former world No. 8 Jurgen Melzer on Wednesday afternoon.
The tournament’s number three Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland as well as fourth favourite Guido Andreozzi from Argentine also advanced to the second round. Laaksonen beat Sarasota Open runner-up Tennys Sandgren 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 34 minutes and Andreozzi edged past Colombian lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan, winning 6-4, 6-4 in 78 minutes.
Tuesday, April 25 – RESULTS
Singles First round
WC Christian Harrison, United States, d. LL-Sekou Bangoura, United States, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, Q-Dominik Koepfer, Germany, d. Andre Ghem, Brazil, 6-1, 6-1,
Vincent Millot, France d. Denis Shapovalov, Canada, 7-5, 7-6(3),
Leonard Mayer (6), Argentina, d. Q-Jose Statham, New Zealand, 6-4, 6-2,
Q-Andrea Arnaboldi, Italy, d. Jose Hernandez-Fernandez, Dominican Republic, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3,
Guido Andreozzi (4), Argentina, d. LL-Daniel Elahi Galan, Columbia, 6-4, 6-4,
Ramkumar Ramanathan, India, d. Peter Polansky (5), Canada, 6-1, 7-5,
Q-Blaz Rola, Slovenia, d. WC-Marcos Giron, 6-2, 6-4,
Henri Laaksonen (3), Switzerland, d. Tennys Sandgren, United States, 7-5, 6-4,
Jurgen Melzer, Austria, d. PR-Alejandro Gonzalez, Columbia,7-5, 6-2,
Stefan Kozlov (7), United States, d. Federico Coria, Argentina, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6.
Doubles – First round
Maximo Gonzalez and Leonard Mayer (3), Argentina, d. WC-Sekou Bangoura and Mackenzie McDonald, 6-2, 6-2,
Q-Ruben Gonzales, Phillipines, and Alex Lawson, United States, d. Mikelis Libietis, Latvia, and Max Schnur, United States, 6-4, 4-6, 10-8,
Luke Bambridge, Great Britain, and Mitchell Krueger, United States, d. WC-Evan King, United States, and Benjamin Lock, Zimbabwe, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
