TALLAHASSEE, April 24, 2018

On day one of main draw action at the $75,000 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, defending champion Blaz Rola and No. 6 seed Akira Santillan were both defeated in the opening round of singles.

Marc Polmans (photo: Jacob Stuckey)

In the featured evening match No. 5 seed Blaz Rola took to the court against Marc Polmans with the hope of defending his 2017 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger singles title. The 20-year old Australian had a different plan though and broke Rola three times to take the opening set 6-0.

In the second set Rola took an early 3-1 lead, but Polmans was able to break back and take the match 6-0, 6-3 in just over an hour. Polmans is currently ranked No. 206 in the world and has already claimed one ATP Challenger Tour
title and three Futures titles in 2018. After his stellar start to the year, Polmans is currently No. 8 in the ATP Race to Milan. He will now face qualifier Federico Coria in the second round. The two have never faced each other before.

Earlier in the afternoon, wild card JC Aragone took on No. 6 seed Akira Santillan. Santillan took the opening set 7-5, despite only making in 47% of his first serves and dropping both of the break points he faced. In the second set, Aragone mounted a comeback and took the set 7-6(9) in a tiebreak. In the final and decisive set, Aragone continued his momentum and only needed one break of serve to close out the match with a final score of 5-7, 7-6(9), 6-3.

Aragone is currently ranked No. 333 in the world and enters Tallahassee fresh off a $25,000 Futures
title in Calabasas, CA. In his run to the singles title last month, Aragone did not drop a set and saw his ATP ranking rise nearly 37 spots. Aragone will now face Australian Max Purcell in the second round. The two have never met before.

Monday, April 23 – RESULTS
Singles – First round
Thomaz Bellucci, Brazil, d. WC-Danny Thomas, United States, 6-1, 6-2,
WC-JC Aragone, United States, d. Akira Santillan (6), Australia, 5-7, 7-6(9), 6-3,
Q-Federico Coria, Argentina, d. Q-Trent Bryde, United States, 6-0, 6-1,
Q-Max Purcell, Australia, d. Q-Yoshihito Nishioka, Japan, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(6),
Marc Polmans, Australia, d. Blaz Rola (5), Slovenia, 6-0, 6-3.
Doubles – First round
Enrique Lopez Perez, Spain, and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (4), India, d. Q-Erik Crepaldi, Italy, and
Peter Torebko, Germany, 6-4, 7-6(4),
Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara (1), Great Britain, d. Andrea Arnaboldi, Italy, and Andreas
Siljestrom, Sweden, 6-3, 7-6(4).