ATLANTA, July 26, 2019 (Press Release)

Second round action wrapped up on Wednesday at the 2019 BB&T Atlanta Open presented by First Data.

Players were looking to earn their spot in Friday’s quarterfinals.

The first singles match on Stadium Court saw an Australian battle between the talented Bernard Tomic and the steady, Matthew Ebden. Tomic and Ebden both broke each other in the first set but it was 26 year-old Tomic, who took the advantage mid set as he went up 3-2. That break proved to be enough for Tomic to take the first set home after serving 71% of first serves. The second set proved to be very different from the first one. Neither players faced any break points until 5-5 where Ebden had to put a difficult backhand volley away to erase the sole break point of the set. Tomic, who defeated the No. 5 seed, Frances Tiafoe, in the first round of the tournament after a third set tie breaker, had to battle out another tie breaker to qualify for quarterfinal action.

The night session opened with an upset-minded, Kevin King, taking on No. 2 seed, Taylor Fritz.

Two players with very different backgrounds with Fritz facing the hometown qualifier, Kevin King. Fritz at 21, has been established on the ATP World Tour for over three years and has had success at every level he played. King is a graduate of Georgia Tech who before defeating Grigor Dimitrov never had an ATP World Tour level win, but was able to do it here in his hometown of Atlanta. It was King who put the pressure on Fritz early but Fritz was able to keep his composure to hold serve despite a long service games with many back and forth deuces. After missing the chance to break, King was broken at 2-3 after a double fault to give away the break. The qualifier would continue to fight as he had been giving himself another breakpoint opportunity down 4-2.  Showing why he was the No. 2 seed Fritz was again able to work his way out of it and get another break to win the first set 6-2.

To start the second, King was broken again after struggling on his serve with double faults. However being down a break in both sets in the previous match, he won Kevin would not throw in the towel and continued to battle as he got the break back at 1-3. The set was even until Fritz would secure his 4th break of the match at 4-3 and then continue to serve out the set at 5-3. King would leave to a great crowd ovation as they had lots of respect for the man who never stopped fighting regardless of the score line and because of that was able to get his big breakthrough in his hometown.

No. 2 seed @Taylor_Fritz97 🇺🇸 makes his #AtlantaOpen singles debut with a 💥. He takes out Kevin King 🇺🇸 6-2, 6-3 to the #USOpenSeries quarterfinals. pic.twitter.com/4H7dVWc1Bw

— BB&T Atlanta Open (@BBTatlantaopen) July 26, 2019

RESULTS – JULY 25, 2019

Men’s

Singles – Second Round

[2] T. Fritz (USA) d [Q] K. King (USA) 62 63

[3] A. de Minaur (AUS) d B. Klahn (USA) 64 64

M. Kecmanovic (SRB) d [8] U. Humbert (FRA) 62 62

B. Tomic (AUS) d M. Ebden (AUS) 64 76(3)

Men’s

Doubles – Quarterfinals

[4] R. Albot (MDA) / A. Sitak (NZL) d M. Arevalo (ESA) / M. Reyes-Varela (MEX) 64 63

J. Sock (USA) / J. Withrow (USA) d B. McLachlan (JPN) / J. Smith (AUS) 62 63