TIBURON, September 26, 2017
Day three at the Tiburon Challenger saw incredible tennis, with some big guns toppling out of the $100,000 ATP Challenger event. Tim Smyzcek, number-one seed in qualifying, fell to fellow US-American Sekou Bangoura.
Bangoura came out strong and was able to maintain an extremely high level of tennis throughout the match. Tim was not in his best form, but hats off to Sekou for a strong performance, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in one hour and 41 minutes.
Kaichi Uchida put on another stellar performance, beating German Jan Choinski to qualify for the main draw. Uchida won the first set 7-5, lost the second 3-6, but came roaring back winning the third set 6-1.
US-American Deighton Baughman also put on a good show, beating Alexios Halebian to qualify for the main draw, as did Evan King beating Canadian Filip Peliwo 6-3, 6-2.
In the doubles, Tom Fawcett and Edan Leshem beat Sergio Galdos and Roberto Maytin in an upset victory taking them through to the doubles main draw.
Main Draw Action Gets Underway
First round main draw saw 2010 Tiburon Champion Tobias Kamke beat Christian Garin 6-3, 6-1. The 31-year-old German won 77 per cent of his first service points and broke serve four times to advance in exactly one hour of play. Next up for Kamke will be fourth seed Michael Mmoh, who edged past Noah Rubin 6-1, 6-2 in 66 minutes.
Big serving Aussie Sam Groth was unable to get by USA’s Mitchell Krueger on stadium court. The match was a see-saw style battle with Krueger getting broken serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set letting Groth back into the match. However, Groth’s serve was not firing and he could not capitalize going down 7-5 in the second set. End score 6-3, 7-5 in favor of Krueger.
Men’s Singles First Round
[4] M. Mmoh (USA) d N. Rubin (USA) 61 62
T. Kamke (GER) d C. Garin (CHI) 63 61
M. Krueger (USA) d S. Groth (AUS) 64 75
Men’s Doubles First Round
[PR] A. Gonzalez (COL) / R. Quiroz (ECU) d [WC] J. Lamble (USA) / B. Saraiva (POR) 75 64
[WC] A. Goransson (SWE) / F. Lakat (FRA) d S. Bangoura (USA) / E. King (USA) 26 64 14-12
Men’s Qualifying Singles Third Round
Qualifying S. Bangoura (USA) d [1] T. Smyczek (USA) 62 26 62
Qualifying [4] E. King (USA) d [5] F. Peliwo (CAN) 63 62
Qualifying D. Baughman (USA) d A. Halebian (USA) 63 63
Qualifying K. Uchida (JPN) d J. Choinski (GER) 75 36 61
Men’s Qualifying Doubles – Second Round
Qualifying [WC] T. Fawcett (USA) / E. Leshem (ISR) d [1] S. Galdos (PER) / R. Maytin (VEN) 67(3) 63 10-6
