SAN FRANCISCO, February 7, 2018
Top seed Alexander Bublik fell in the opening round of the Kunal Patel San Francisco Open, a $100,000 ATP Challenger event held on hard courts at the Bay Club in San Francisco. The World No. 132 from Kazakhstan lost 6-7, 6-3, 2-6 to Dennis Novikov on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old US-American withstood 18 aces, hitting four of his own and broke his opponent’s serve four times to prevail after one hour and 48 minutes. Novikov will next face Daniel Elahi Galan from Ecuador, who fought past Brazilian qualifier Karue Sell 7-6, 3-6, 6-3.
Was an amazing night of 🏀, as @MichaelMmoh and @chris_eubanks96 took a break from the #ATPChallenger in San Francisco for the @warriors vs. @okcthunder game. pic.twitter.com/8tPCL98oN1
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) 7. Februar 2018
Mackenzie McDonald, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, advanced to the second round with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 victory over Frenchman Florian Lakat. The 22-year-old from the United States won 57 per cent of the total points played to finish the encounter in one hour and 10 minutes. Next up for McDonald will be Jason Jung from Chinese Taipei, who eased past Inigo Cervantes of Spain 6-2, 6-0.
With the tournament’s No. 3 Michael Mmoh, fourth favourite Denis Kudla, No. 5 as well as No. 6 seeds Bradley Klahn and Noah Rubin, four more seeded players from the United States found their way into the Round of the last 16.
