LAHAINA, January 26, 2016
Upsets galore on day three of the $50,000 SportMaster Tennis Championships of Maui. On the men’s side, James McGee (IRL), Nicolas Meister (USA), and Ernesto Escobedo (USA) saw success on the court as they upset top players in the Main Draw. The match of the day went to Alex Bolt (AUS) as he came back from two match points down to American favorite and 2015 Maui Challenger champion, Jared Donaldson, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3. Donaldson, currently ranked no.146 in the world, outranked Bolt by 40 ranking points (Bolt ranked no. 176). Bolt emerged into the main draw as a lucky loser after falling in the qualifying rounds to American Eric Quigley 6-7(6), 4-6. Reflecting upon the match, Bolt knew the match was going to be tough from the start.
“I knew I had to bring my best stuff to beat him [Donaldson],” said Bolt. “I just had to hang in there. I got a little sniff there in the second set tiebreak and took that. Then felt I took the momentum from then on.”
This was Bolt’s first appearance at a Hawaii based Challenger. Although he lost his qualifying match yesterday, he is confident going forward where he will face Jason Jung (TPE). The matchup will be an interesting one as Jung took out qualifier and recent opponent of Bolt, Eric Quigley, 6-2, 7-5.
Another big upset seen earlier in the day was Matteo Donati’s (ITA) win over no.2 seed Radu Albot 6-4, 6-4.
The Women’s Singles Main Draw commenced today with no major upsets. No. 2 seed and world no. 107, Samantha Crawford, easily advances with a win over fellow American, Jennifer Brady 6-1, 6-4.
RESULTS – TUESDAY
Men’s Singles – First Round
[1] K. Edmund (GBR) d A. Sarkissian (USA) 64 62
M. Donati (ITA) d [2] R. Albot (MDA) 64 64
J. McGee (IRL) d [5] R. Harrison (USA) 75 63
[LL] A. Bolt (AUS) d [6] J. Donaldson (USA) 67(4) 76(5) 63
[Q] E. Escobedo (USA) d [7] B. Rola (SLO) 75 76(2)
[Q] M. Mmoh (USA) d [WC] J. Martinez Vich (ESP) 63 61
[Q] N. Meister (USA) d [WC] S. Kozlov (USA) 63 61
T. Fritz (USA) d D. Molchanov (UKR) 62 64
T. Sandgren (USA) d Z. Li (CHN) 64 60
J. Jung (TPE) d [Q] E. Quigley (USA) 62 75
D. Wu (CHN) d C. Smith (USA) 62 75
Men’s Doubles – First Round
J. Jung (TPE) / D. Novikov (USA) d R. Gonzales (PHI) / D. Walsh (GBR) 76(4) 76(5)
J. Cerretani (USA) / M. Schnur (USA) d B. Rola (SLO) / G. Zemlja (SLO) 64 76(3)
ITF Women’s Singles – First Round
[3] N. Broady (GBR) d L. Kichenok (UKR) 76(4) 64
[5] J. Pegula (USA) d J. Wacnik (USA) 61 63
[6] P. Kania (POL) d [WC] M. Gordon (USA) 63 63
[8] M. Kato (JPN) d L. Zhang (HKG) 64 63
C. Hsu (TPE) d C. Liu (USA) 61 62
R. Kingsley (USA) d J. Boserup (USA) 62 60
ITF Women’s Doubles – First Round
[1] A. Muhammad (USA) / M. Sanchez (USA) d [WC] K. Hancarova (CZE) / N. Hoynaski (AUS) walkover
M. Hibi (JPN) / C. Hsu (TPE) d [4] Y. Bonaventure (BEL) / S. Vickery (USA) 64 75
M. Gordon (USA) / C. Liu (USA) d S. Luk (USA) / T. Parravi (USA) 63 61
ITF Q. Women’s Singles – Third Round
Qualifying – [1] M. Linette (POL) d [5] J. Failla (USA) 06 61 64
Qualifying – [2] R. Ushijima (JPN) d [8] B. Boren (USA) 62 61
Qualifying – [7] E. Levashova (RUS) d C. Mcdonald (USA) 61 60
Qualifying – A. Kratzer (USA) d S. Leon (MEX) 64 63
