TALLAHASSEE, April 26, 2018

20-year old Michael Mmoh booked a spot in the quarterfinals of the $75,000 Tallahassee Tennis Challenger after a commanding 6-2, 6-3 win over Jay Clarke on Wednesday.

In the first set Mmoh served impeccably, winning 72 per cent of points on his first serve and 100 per cent on his second serve. The US-American quickly broke Clarke twice and took the opening set 6-2. In the second set, Clarke turned the tables and broke Mmoh twice. Mmoh found his rhythm again and was able to break back and close out the match after one hour and 16 minutes with a final score of 6-2, 6-3.

“I knew he was a good player,” said Mmoh. “He’s been playing tons of matches on the clay, so he is pretty comfortable. I knew he was going to be a tough customer and I think I just stuck to my game plan for the course of the match and played really well.”

Mmoh is having a stand-out year after he qualified for and reached the quarterfinals of the ATP Australian Open tune-up event in Brisbane. With the string of wins he reached his first ATP Tour quarterfinal and notched first ATP match win. In March he also qualified for and reached the third round of the ATP Masters Series event in Miami, defeating world No. 15 Roberto Bautista Agut in the process.

“I had a really good off-season. I had a very good base of training, put in a lot of work on a lot of different aspects of my game, and I think it is showing off.”

Mmoh will now face fellow #NextGenATP star Marc Polmans on Thursday evening. The two have never played each other before and Mmoh will be looking to reach his first ATP Challenger Tour semi-final since November 2017.

“I haven’t gotten a whole lot of professional wins on clay so you know to come out here and get two wins in Tallahassee when I wasn’t even sure I was going to play the tournament means a lot.”

Earlier in the day, top seed Denis Kudla fell to fellow US-American Noah Rubin 6-2, 6-4. The 22-year-old from Long Island, New York broke his opponent four times to advance in one hour and 25 minutes. Rubin will next take on young gun Christian Garin of Chile.

Point!!! Unreal effort from @Noahrubin33 & @deniskudla in Tallahassee 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/jAChn5Bci8

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) 25. April 2018

Wednesday, April 25 – RESULTS

Singles – Second round
Noah Rubin, United States, d. Denis Kudla (1), United States, 6-2, 6-4,
Hugo Dellien, Bolivia, d. Mitchell Krueger, United States, 6-3, 6-2,
Marc Polmans, Australia, d. Q-Federico Coria, Argentina, 6-7(4), 6-2, 3-1, Ret.
SE-Juan Ignacio Londero, Argentina, d. Peter Polansky (2), Canada, d. 6-3, 6-3,
Christian Garin, Chile, d. Guilherme Clezr, Brazil, 6-4, 6-2,
Thomaz Belluci, Brazil, d, Miomir Kecmanovic (8), Serbia, 6-3, 6-2,
Q-Max Purcell, Australia, d. WC-JC Aragone, United States, 7-6(1), 6-2,
Michael Mmoh (4), United States, d. Jay Clarke, Great Britain, 6-2,6-3.

Doubles – First round
Christian Harrison, United States, and Peter Polansky, Canada, d. Guilherme Clezar and Joao Pedro Sorgi, Brazil, 5-7, 6-3, 10-6,
Evan King and Nathan Pasha (3), United States, d. WC-Anderson Reed, United States, and Blaz Rola, Slovenia, 6-1,6-1,
Martin Cuevas, Uruguay, and Hugo Dellien, Bolivia, d. WC-JC Aragone, United States, and Pere Riba, Spain, 6-4, 6-2,
Robert Galloway and Denis Kudla, United States, d. Marc Polmans and Max Purcell (2), Australia, 6-1, 6-3.