CARY, September 12, 2019
Brandon Nakashima picked up his first career main draw ATP Challenger match win, defeating fellow Cavalier Thai-Son Kwiatkowski in straight sets in the second round of the Atlantic Tire Championships on Wednesday.
Nakashima, a top ten junior player, was recently a semi-finalist at the US Open Junior Championships. Kwiatkowski, the 2017 NCAA Singles Champion, was the tournament’s No. 13 seed. While he was visibly suffering, Kwiatkowski played strong but struggled with the return of serve. The 18-year-old wild card entry capitalized on his only break point chance in the second set to secure a 7-6(4), 6-4 in one hour and 28 minutes. Nakashima will face US-American Tommy Paul in the third round. Paul recently won the New Haven Challenger.
Besides Kwiatkowski, a number of other tournament seeds didn’t make it out of the second round. Marco Giron (No. 4), Peter Polansky (No. 9), Mitchell Krueger (No. 7) all faced losses. The tournament’s top seeded player, Andrea Seppi, ended a day of fifteen matches, facing Liam Broady in the evenings featured singles match. Seppi defeated Broady in straight sets to advance to the third round.
Wednesday September 11 – RESULTS
Men’s Singles-2nd Round
John-Patrick Smith, Australia (16), d Nicolas Mejia, Colombia, 6-4, 7-5
Daniel Nguyen, United States, d Mitchell Krueger, United States (7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
JC Aragone, United States, d Peter Polansky, Canada (9), 7-6(4), 6-4
Ulises Blanch, United States, d Christian Langmo, United States, 6-3, 6-3
Ben Patael, Israel, d Marcos Giron, United States (4), 2-6, 7-5, Ret’d
WC-Brandon Nakashima, United States, d Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, United States (13), 7-6(4), 6-4
Tommy Paul, United States (2), d. Ryan Peniston, United Kingdom, 6-4, 7-6(3)
Andreas Seppi, Italy (1), d Liam Broady, United Kingdom, 7-6(5), 6-3
Bjorn Fratangelo, United States (3), d Michael Redlicki, United States, 6-4, 6-3
Men’s Doubles-1st Round
Hans Hach Verdugo (Mexico) / Donald Young (United States) d Filip Peliwo / Peter Polansky, Canada, 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
Enzo Couacaud (France)/ Renzo Olivo (Argentina) d WC-Mac Kiger (United States) / Joshua Peck (Canada) 6-3, 4-6, 10-2
Jamie Cerretani / Dennis Novikov, United States (4), d Thai-Son Kwiatkowski / Noah Rubin (United States), 6-4, 6-1
Nathan Pasha / Max Schnur, United States, d Nicholas Monroe (United States) / Matt Reid (Australia) (1), 6-2, 7-5
Sekou Bangoura / Michael Mmoh (United States) d JC Aragone / Jackson Withrow (United States (3), 6-0, 3-6, 10-5
Treat Huey (Philippines) / John-Patrick Smith (Australia) d Robert Galloway (USA) / Martin Redlicki (United States), 6-3, 3-6, 10-6
