TIBURON, September 29, 2016

The bottom half of the main draw at the $100,000 Wells Fargo Tiburon Challenger was in second round action on Wednesday. Second seed Bjorn Fratangelo cruised past Joris de Loore from Belgium, winning 6-2, 7-5.

The world number 109 from Florida lost his service one time but converted all of his four own break point opportunities to advance in only 67 minutes. Fratangelo will next face fellow US-American Michael Mmoh, who knocked off the tournament’s number six Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-4.

Defending champion Tim Smyczek fought past big serving Sam Groth of Australia. The 28-year-old from Tampa withstood 12 aces, hitting three of his own to secure a 7-5, 7-6 victory in one hour and 41 minutes. Next up for Smyczek will be Mitchell Kruger. The 22-year-old US-American ousted eighth seed Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-4 in 75 minutes.

Exciting Doubles Action

“We had absolute fireworks in the doubles today with the Tiafoe and King duo putting on quite the show against Polansky and Bester, finalists in last week’s Columbus Challenger,” said tournament director Brendan Curry.

Frances Tiafoe and David King won the first set 7-6, and then at set point down in second-set tiebreaker, Tiafoe hit a fast return of serve that was at least 122 mph and left his opponents staring. Bester and Polansky won the second set tiebreaker 20-18, and then Tiafoe and King overcame an early 4-1 deficit in the super-breaker to win 10 points to eight.

Thursday starts with wild card Brian Baker facing number five seed Dennis Novikov and wild card and local favorite Mackenzie McDonald taking on Salvatore Caruso of Italy. “Look for these two to put on a show of balance and poise,” said Curry.

Men’s Singles Second Round

[2] Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) d Joris De Loore (BEL) 62 75

[3] Tim Smyczek (USA) d Sam Groth (AUS) 75 76(11)

[Q] Michael Mmoh (USA) d [6] Stefan Kozlov (USA) 75 64

Mitchell Krueger (USA) d [8] Quentin Halys (FRA) 64 64

Men’s Doubles First Round

[1] Marcelo Arevalo (ESA)/Julio Peralta (CHI) vs. [WC] Tommy Paul (USA)

/Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 62 62

Quentin Halys (FRA)/Dennis Novikov (USA) d Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (MEX)/[2] Max Schnur (USA) 46 63 10-5

Darian King (BAR)/Frances Tiafoe (USA) d Philip Bester (CAN)/[4] Peter Polansky

(CAN) 76(2) 67(18) 10-8

[Q] Blaz Rola (SLO)/Grega Zemlja (SLO) d Frederik Nielsen (DEN)/Noah Rubin (USA) 76(10) 57 10-7

Steven De Waard (AUS)/Alessandro Giannessi (ITA) d Guilherme Clezar (BRA)/Brydan Klein (GBR) 63 64

[WC] Mackenzie McDonald (USA)/Ben McLachlan (NZL) d Yuki Bhambri (IND)/[PR] John Paul Fruttero (USA) 63 46 10-3