APTOS, August 15, 2015
All eight seeded singles players won their first two rounds in this year’s Comerica Challenger, resulting in an extremely rare quarterfinal draw on this Friday in Aptos. The last time this has occurred at the ATP Challenger level was back in July 2013 in Kazakhstan.
Top seed John Millman defeated Taro Daniel 6-1, 6-3. No. 81 Millman played close to a flawless match. The Australian did not lose one service point the entire first set.
American-born Japanese player, Daniel, trains in Aptos regularly. His home court advantage was no match to Millman’s commanding on-court presence.
“I was confident today. It was one of those days where a lot of things were going my way,” said Millman. “Everyday is a new day. There will be different conditions tomorrow and it is good to get matches under my belt.”
Millman will advance to play 20 year-old British player, Kyle Edmund. Despite losing his first set today in less than 35 minutes, Edmund beat 19 year-old Yoshihito Nishioka 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 for the fifth time in his career. However, before today Edmund had yet to lose even one set to Nishioka.
On the other side of the draw, an all-American semifinal will not only be the chance for either 25-year old, Austin Krajicek or 22 year-old Bjorn Fratangelo to advance to the finals, but it may also determine the winner of the U.S. Open Wild Card Challenge. If Fratangelo wins tomorrow, he will automatically be entered into the main draw of the U.S. Open. In 2011 Fratangelo defeated Krajicek on clay. That was the last time they played each other.
Krajicek secured a spot in the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win against No. 2 seed, Malek Jaziri. He said that he played good and served well when it mattered.
Fratangelo held his own today with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Australian Mathew Ebden. After beating Former No. 2 Tommy Haas last night and making 10 quarterfinals just this year, Ebden started off strong forcing Fratangelo into the backhand corner.
“I had to find a way to make something else happen and close out that first set which gave me some momentum for the second set,” said Fratangelo. “Austin and I are good friends, it will be fun tomorrow. Whoever wins, wins.”
Tomorrow’s semi final matches will begin at 11 a.m.
RESULTS – AUGUST 14, 2015
Men’s Singles – Quarterfinals
[1] J. Millman (AUS) d [5] T. Daniel (JPN) 61 63
[7] A. Krajicek (USA) d [2] M. Jaziri (TUN) 63 64
[3] K. Edmund (GBR) d [8] Y. Nishioka (JPN) 36 63 63
[4] B. Fratangelo (USA) d [6] M. Ebden (AUS) 64 62
Men’s Doubles – Quarterfinals
Y. Bhambri (IND) / M. Ebden (AUS) d M. Jaziri (TUN) / Z. Zhang (CHN) 75 62
