Tennis Atlantic

FLORIDA’S @STEFANKOZLOV OPENS WITH BIG WIN AT SO CAL PRO FUTURES TOURNAMENT

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 6, 2015) – Unseeded 16-year-old Stefan Kozlov opened up first-round play at the USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 Southern California Futures Tournament with an easy 6-1, 6-0 victory over No. 7-seeded Joshua Milton of Great Britain on Tuesday at the Marks Tennis Stadium on the campus of USC.

Kozlov, who has turned pro, finished 2014 as the No. 3-ranked ITF junior player in the world and reached both the Wimbledon and the Australian Open junior final in 2014, as well as the junior quarterfinals at the US Open and the French Open.

In December of 2014, the Pembroke Pines, Fla., resident Kozlov also won the prestigious Orange Bowl singles and doubles titles.

In the upset of the day, wild card Taylor Fritz of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., downed top-seeded and former UCLA All-American Dennis Novikov, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-5.

Playing 45 miles from his hometown of Thousand Oaks, former four-year University of Washington star Kyle McMorrow opened up first-round play with a 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-1, win over Switzerland’s Sandro Ehrat.

In a battle between wild cards, USC’s Eric Johnson got past Stanford’s Tom Fawcett, 6-4, 7-5.

In a battle of qualifiers, former UCLA standout Clay Thompson outlasted North Carolina’s Ronnie Scheinder, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1.

The tournament announced that reigning NCAA singles champion Marcos Giron had pulled out of the event, but was scheduled to play next week’s USTA $15,000 Futures event at the El Dorado Park Tennis Center in Long Beach.

For more information including draws and schedules, check out procircuit.usta.com. For more information on the Southern California Tennis Academy run by Smith and Mitch Bridge, go to sctennisacademy.com.

To follow all the action on Twitter, go to: @USCMensTennis and also follow: @USTAProCircuit.

Tuesday’s First-Round Singles Results:

Stefan Kozlov, U.S., def. Joshua Milton (7), Great Britain, 6-1, 6-0

Kyle McMorrow, U.S., def. Sandro Ehrat, Switzerland, 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-1

Alexander Ward (5), Great Britain, def. Mitchell Frank, U.S., 6-1, 6-4

Taylor Fritz (wc), U.S., def. Dennis Novikov (1), U.S., 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-5

Eric Johnson (wc), U.S., def. Tom Fawcett (wc), U.S., 6-4, 7-5

Eric Quigley, U.S., def, Nick Meister, U.S., 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

Clay Thompson (q), U.S., def. Ronnie Scheinder (q), U.S., 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1

Tuesday’s First-Round Doubles Results:

Mackenzie McDonald, U.S. / Martin Redlicki, U.S., def. Jason Jung, U.S. / Daniel Nguyen, U.S., 6-3, 6-1

Yannick Hanfmann, Germany / Roberto Quiroz, Ecuador, def. Nicholas Crystal, U.S. / Thibault Forget, France (wc), 6-4, 6-0

James Cluskey, Ireland / Frederik Neilsen, Denmark (1), def. Alexios Halebian, U.S. / Alex Sarkissian, 6-4, 7-5

Dimitar Kutrovsky, Bulgaria / Dennis Novikov (4), U.S., def. Andre Dome, U.S. / Fabian Matthews, U.S., 2-6, 6-4, 10-8

Taylor Fritz, U.S. / Riley Smith, U.S. (wc), def. Markos Kalovelonis, Russia / Mico Santiago, U.S., 6-1, 6-0

Jarryd Chaplan, Australia / Kyle McMorrow, U.S., def. Sandro Ehrat, Switzerland, Oliver Mrose, Switzerland, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-5

Nicolas Meister, U.S. / Eric Quiqley, U.S., (3) def. Stefan Kozlov, U.S. / Mitchell Krueger, U.S., 7-5, 4-6, 10-7

Joshua Milton, Great Britain / Alexander Ward, Great Britain, def. Connor Farren, U.S. / Eric Johnson, U.S., (wc), 2-6, 6-2, 10-6

—S. Pratt