Tennis Atlantic

Day 3 at BB&T: Williams Beats Kudla in Straights, Harrison Wins in 3, King, Smyczek Qualify

Atlanta, July 22,2013–Rhyne Williams was the better player in his nightcap 1st round match against Denis Kudla on Day 3 of the BB&T Atlanta Open, winning 7-5, 6-4 behind great serving, including 16 aces and 72% service points won.

Ryan Harrison won 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 over Marinko Matosevic in a closely contested match to make the 2nd round.

And in final round qualifying, Kevin King was helped by an hour plus rain delay en route to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Robby Ginepri. Ginepri was pushing him and moving well in the opening set, clearly having an edge in a grindfest. After the rain delay, Ginepri was a totally different player, hitting with less place, moving less, and after dropping the 2nd set. He eventually gimped up in the 3rd set, which he finished slowly, moving and bending over and down, with what appeared to be more back issues.

At the same time, Tim Smyczek was helped by another typical Donald Young mental collapse, winning a fiery battle 7-5, 7-6. Young went down a break in the first, got it back, but lost the set anyway. In the 2nd set, which was also played after the rain delay, he served for the set but was broken at love. He also failed to show up in the tiebreak with his game proving to erratic in the key moments.

The other qualifiers are Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-2 over Prakash Amritraj, and Matt Ebden 6-4, 7-6 over Chris Guccione.

In the lone main draw doubles match, Fleming/Marray beat Donskoy/Istomin 6-3, 7-6, while in the exhibition doubles, the Sock brothers won the Bro Down Show Down over the Blake brothers, meaning Jack Sock won over his main draw doubles partner James Blake.

—Steen Kirby