Tennis Atlantic

Charlottesville, Virginia—A strong field converged in Charlottesville last weekend for the 2024 Jonathan Fried Men’s Pro Tennis Challenger in this Central Virginia city. With names like Reilly Opelka, Kyle Edmund, Chris Eubanks and Bernard Tomic, this was sure to be a star-studded quarterfinals in the making. Then, reality sank in as it does in all tennis tournaments. The Little Big 4 are long defeated by now, paving the way for younger players like Learner Tien, Nishesh Basavareddy, Ethan Quinn, Mark Lajal, Alexis Galarneau, James Trotter and Colton Smith to battle for the title. With the US Presidential Election just days away, there’s another grinding campaign going on here and it, too is quickly approaching the finish line.

Quinn started off Thursday’s proceedings on Halloween with a frightful display of dominance, besting tough-out Maks Kasnikowski, 7-5, 6-0. He’ll face Alexis Garneau not before 2:00 p.m. The Canadian advanced to the quarters with a 6-2, 7-6(5) win in the nightcap over UVA’s Dylan Dietrich.

Speaking of the University of Virginia, Cavalier alum Chris Rodesch pulled another upset on his old home courts yesterday, beating Paul Jubb 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4, for the right to play Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford) for a spot in the semis.

Bashavareddy put a voodoo curse on opponent Patrick Zahraj in the 6-2, 6-0 victory. After the Halloween match, I asked Bashavareddy who would be the spookiest player he would have nightmares playing on Center Court. Naturally, it was the Prince of Darkness himself–Djokovic.

Learner Tien and Estonia’s Mark Lajal were both straight sets winners on Wednesday and meet today. Lajal hasn’t dropped a set in the tournament yet, along with Bashavareddy, Garneau, Quinn and James Trotter.

Even though Halloween is over, I’m still going to ask them about their spookiest nightmare opponent question on the Day of the Dead today.

And finally, Colton Smith is the early leader in the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Challenge with 44 points as a result of reaching last week’s final in Sioux Falls. Going deep in Charlottesville could be a big boost to his hopes to head Down Under with an automatic main draw berth on the barbie, so this weekend presents both a big challenge and a big opportunity for the young American.

—S. Fogleman