SIOUX FALLS, S.D., October 28, 2026 (Media Release)
Eight Americans are into the second round at the MarketBeat Open, led by top seed Jenson Brooksby and No. 3 Darwin Blanch.
Brooksby and Blanch won their first round matches on Tuesday and they were joined by countrymen Stefan Kozlov, Mitchell Krueger, Aidan Mayo, and J.J. Wolf into the second round. On Monday, Americans [WC] Kaylan Bigun and Daniel Milavsky won their matches.
Brooksby won his sixth ATP Challenger match in a row with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over wild card Bryce Nakashima in his Sioux Falls debut. The former World No. 33 broke the Ohio State Univ. senior four times and won 82 per cent of first serve points.
No. 2 seed Valentin Royer of France also made a successful Sioux Falls debut with a 6-3, 7-6(6) win over countryman qualifier Timo Legout. Royer won the last five points of the match after saving three set points down 6-3.
Blanch, who was runner-up in the Fort Worth Challenger on Sunday, opened with a 6-4, 6-2 victory in 58 minutes over wild card and former Univ. of Texas All-American Sebastian Gorzny. Blanch, who is the youngest player (19 yrs., 1 mon.) in the Top 150 ATP Rankings at No. 144, never faced break point and improved to 30-18 this year in Challenger play.
Other seeds advancing into the second round were No. 5 Liam Draxl of Canada and No. 8 Maks Kasnikowski of Poland. Draxl beat Polish qualifier Tomasz Berkieta 7-6(8), 7-6(1) and Kasnikowski ousted Japanese qualifier James Trotter 6-1, 6-2.
There are four second round matches in the top half of the draw on Wednesday with Brooksby taking on Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland in the final match on the order of play. Dietrich, who is the No. 1 collegiate player in the country at the Univ. of Virginia, will be facing his first Top 100-ranked opponent of his career against World No. 94 Brooksby.
In the second match on, former World No. 37 J.J. Wolf will face Daniel Milavsky and in the fifth match on, 19-year-old Dutchman Mees Rottgering plays [WC] Kaylan Bigun. In the second match on Kwik Star Stadium, Aidan Mayo squares off vs. No. 8 Maks Kasnikowski.
