Eubanks and Krajicek Lead 2016 BB&T Atlanta Open Qualifiers
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic
Georgia Tech’s Christopher Eubanks will be facing wild card Reilly Opelka in his ATP debut, after he qualified on Sunday at the 2016 BB&T Atlanta Open. Eubanks stunned the top seed in qualifying, Thiago Monteiro 6-4 7-5, and he’s had to win more matches than any other player to get this far, as he also won the pre-qualifier. Eubanks was strong on his serve in the match, he got a break early in the first, and saved a break point serving for the first set. In the second set he earned a crucial late break after Monteiro had broken him back when he was serving 4-3. Monteiro had a set point/break point opportunity when Eubanks was serving 4-5, but he couldn’t convert it, and Eubanks closed the match out on his second match point chance. Monteiro was suffering from cramps during the match.
Joining Eubanks in the main draw are Austin Krajicek, Mischa Zverev, and J.P. Smith, as final round qualifying matches saw some upsets on the day besides Eubanks big win. Krajicek slipped past James Duckworth 3-6 7-6 7-6, barely prevailing in a match that featured a lengthy rain delay. Zverev won a close match against Nicolas Meister 7-6 7-5, and Smith upset Tobias Kamke 7-6 6-3, as all of the matches today were close ones.
Krajicek faces fellow American Donald Young in the main draw, Smith will face veteran Julien Benneteau, and Zverev has a winnable match against Adrian Mannarino. Monteiro made the main draw as a lucky loser, as Rajeev Ram withdrew. He will face Tim Smyczek in the opening round.
The schedule for tomorrow features Monteiro vs. Smyczek, Groth vs. Donaldson, Krajicek vs. Young, and Eubanks vs. Opelka, along with Mannarino vs. Zverev in terms of singles matches.
ATP Doubles Draw
Ivan Dodig and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi are the top doubles seeds, they open with Jonathan Marray and Adil Shamasdin. The winner of that match will get Kamke/Dusan Lajovic or Marcelo Demoliner/Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
The big server Sam Groth has teamed up with veteran Eric Butorac, they face Swedes Johan Brunstrom/Andreas Siljestrom in round 1, with Dan Evans/Ken Skupski or Nicholas Monroe/Artem Sitak to follow.
Alex Dolgopolov and Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ukraine’s #1 and #2, face James Frawley and Nick Kyrgios on Monday, with Purav Raja/Divij Sharan or Jonathan Erlich/Mariusz Frystenberg to follow.
Mate Pavic and Robert Lindstedt are the #2 doubles seed, they face Andres Molteni and Horacio Zeballos in their first match, with an alternate doubles team or Eubanks/Zack Kennedy of Georgia Tech and Georgia State Universities to follow.
Tennis Atlantic 