Hubert Hurkacz

2-4-8! Who Do We Appreciate? Three Seeded Players In @DelrayBeachOpen Quarterfinal Play Today

Posted by Admin on January 11, 2021

Posted in: ATP, Delray Beach. Tagged: ATP Tour 2021, christian harrison, COVID-19, Delray Beach Open, frances tiafoe, Hubert Hurkacz, John Isner, quarterfinals, Sebastian Korda. Leave a comment

2-4-8! Who Do We Appreciate? Three Seeded Players In Delray Beach Open Quarterfinal Play Today

Steve Fogleman in Delray Beach

January 11–-John Isner, Hubert Hurkacz and Frances Tiafoe are clearly the ones to beat in this tournament at the moment. Those seeded Delray Beach Open seeds have a lot of contenders at their tails. Sebastian Korda, who beat John Isner at Roland Garros last year, is set for the challenge against the second seed nig man Isner.

Roberto Quiroz, the 28-year-old Ecuadorean with deep pro tennis roots and in his first ever ATP quarterfinal, will square off against the 4 seed, Hubert Hurkacz. Hurkacz hopes to be the 7th 4 seed to win this tournament. It’s been tours since his last semifinal berth, but former Texas Christian University standout Cameron Norrie will do his best to move on against 8 seed and 2018 champion Frances Tiafoe.

Finally, you’ve got a match this afternoon that will result in an automatic underdog advancing to the semifinals between Christian Harrison and Gianluca Mager. This is Harrison’s first quarterfinal and Mager beat his brother Ryan to open the main draw of the tournament. In fact, Mager is looking to defeat his third American in a row after a win over Sam Querrey in the second round.

I’ve said it many times and it seems to hold true. At the lower level tournaments, seeding means little.The experience and confidence the players earn on the courts prior to the main draw are often enormously valuable.

As far as coronavirus and social distancing protocols here, there seems to be a ramped-up enforcement. With fewer fans in attendance on Friday, there were more groups together in the upper areas of the stadium and plenty of chin-strapping. I looked at the ushers on the concourse below and was worried that these mature-aged volunteers wouldn’t be up to the task. Meanwhile, Delray Beach Police Officers were all over the facility and didn’t seem interested in managing the new rules. By the weekend, that had changed. Frequent announcements were made that all fans were required to be in their assigned seats and that ushers would be coming around to check those seat assignments. Seats were sold in blocks of 2 or 4 with alternating rows and the protocols appeared to be enforced more stringently. Though it’s completely understandable, my heart sunk a little during announcements that fans were prohibited from asking for selfies or autographs from the players. And that photo of Frances Tiafoe above? He says he requested it. The only reason his mask was down was because he’d just finished answering a few questions for me twelve feet away. Throughout the weekend, the announcer made a point to inform the fans that they were about to be part of a national telecast on Tennis Channel, as if to remind them that they didn’t want to give their own town a bad look on TV. Maybe that was the trick.

Lacko and De Minaur Secure Second Round Berths @BBTAtlantaOpen

Posted by Admin on July 24, 2018

Posted in: Atlanta, ATP, BB&T Atlanta Open, Steen Kirby. Tagged: 2018 ATP Atlanta, 2018 BB&T Atlanta Open, Alex De Minaur, ATP Atlanta Day 3, atp. atlanta, BB&T Atlanta Open, Donald Young, Hubert Hurkacz, ivo karlovic, Lukas Lacko, Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Leave a comment

Lacko and De Minaur Secure Second Round Berths at BB&T Atlanta Open
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

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The night session was partially cancelled due to rain, but 2 (and a half) matches still completed on day 1 of the main draw at the BB&T Atlanta Open 2018.

For over 2 hours Alex De Minaur battled with lucky loser Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. Despite having played over the weekend in qualifying, Hurkacz came out as the fresher player roaring past De Minaur 6-1 in the first set. From there ADM steeled himself and stepped up in a big way though, battling past the Pole in consecutive tiebreaks to win the match 1-6 7-6 7-6, in the end coming back from a set and a break down to win.

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De Minaur was strong on second serve despite generating fewer chances on return, breaks were traded early in set 2 and Hurkacz saved a set point to force a tiebreak that De Minaur dominated to force a third. Hurkacz was pressed hard in the third set, nearly getting broken early, and getting broken to let the Australian young gun serve for the match. Hurkacz broke back to continue the action but a closer third set tiebreak saw De Minaur squeak it 7-5. Next for ADM is defending champion John Isner.

Lukas Lacko had a far easier time against qualifier Prajnesh Gunneswaran. The Slovak veteran enjoyed one way traffic in his first match of the tournament prevailing 6-2 6-2 in less than an hour. The errors started early and often off the Gunneswaran racquet as he went 4-0 down and never truly regained his foothold in the match.

In the third match of the day Ivo Karlovic was well on his way to (most likely) wrapping things up in straight sets against Donald Young until the rain came. Karlovic was up 6-2 5-5 as Young played a poor first set. DY recovered a bit in the second to keep things on an even keel, but Karlovic’s serve continued to trouble him. The match will conclude tomorrow.

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Tuesday’s singles action features a multitude of matches. Chardy vs. Berankis and Norrie vs. Jaziri start the day. The Ryan Harrison vs. James Duckworth contest that was scratched on Monday due to rain will follow along with Ramanathan vs. Fritz.

The Karlovic and Young match will conclude third on stadium, with Copil vs. Tiafoe, and Youhzny vs Reinberg the remaining singles matches on Stadium. On grandstand it will be Kokkinakis vs. Rubin and Smyczek vs. Zverev with Bolt vs. Baghdatis the late match. Two doubles matches will also take place tomorrow.

The doubles results today saw Bambridge/O’Mara, Raja/Skupski, and Monroe/Smith advance.

Kokkinakis, Bolt, Rubin, and Gunneswaran Secure BB&T Atlanta Open Main Draw Spots
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

BB&T Atlanta Open Qualifying for 2018 concluded on Sunday with the four qualifiers set. Two of them are Australian as Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Hubert Hurkacz 6-2 7-6 in just over an hour and a half, and Alex Bolt defeated Denis Kudla in the last match of the day 6-7 6-3 6-3 in 2 hours.

Kokkinakis got off to a great start with an immediate break, and for his part wasn’t broken in the match despite a few spare chances for Hurkacz of Poland. The second set was much closer but from 6-6 Kokkinakis won two consecutive points to secure his qualification. Hurkacz would go on to make the main draw as a lucky loser.

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Bolt dropped the opening set despite breaking back after going down a break. He played a poor tiebreak to hand Kudla a one set lead. Kudla couldn’t maintain his advantage though, he was broken in the opening game of set 2 and then once more in the final game of the second set, all while failing to pressure Bolt in the Australian’s service game. That theme continued in the third set, Kudla offered little on return and despite saving an early break point on his serve, he was broken to go 4-2 down in the third, and eventually lost the match.

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The remaining qualifiers were American Noah Rubin and India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Gunneswaran made his ATP main draw debut in Stuttgart just a few weeks back, and now he’s into his second ATP main draw at the age of 28. He also won his first challenger title this year, and perhaps next will make his main draw debut in a Grand Slam. Gunneswaran eased past Tommy Paul 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour, he wasn’t broken in the match.

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Rubin eased past a previously in-form Jason Jung 6-4 6-2 in a match that was also just past an hour. Rubin did not face a break point and had relatively smooth sailing to reach his third ATP main draw this year.

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The placement of the qualifiers into the main draw is as follows:

Hurkacz(LL) vs. Alex De Minaur

Bolt vs. Marcos Baghdatis

Gunneswaran vs. Lukas Lacko

Kokkinakis vs. Rubin in a qualifier vs qualifier matchup.

Tommy Paul and Jason Jung Advance at BB&T Atlanta Open Qualifying
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

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Day 1 of the 2018 BB&T Atlanta Open saw the first round of qualifying complete. Bernard Tomic suffered a surprise defeat against Tommy Paul, Paul prevailed 6-3 4-6 6-3 in just over an hour and a half. Paul broke Tomic twice in the opening set and despite recovering to take the second with an early break, he fell under relentless pressure by Paul in the final set, as Paul broke for 5-3 and took the match after saving a break point in the next service game.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran will be Paul’s opponent in the final round of qualifying. Gunneswaran got bageled in the opening set but it was smooth sailing in sets 2 and 3 against Mohamed Safwat for a 0-6 6-3 6-1 result.

Local favorites Chris Eubanks, Garrett Johns, and Kiranpal Pannu all fell in straight sets. Jason Jung continued his great form with a 6-4 6-3 win against Eubanks, Jung wasn’t broken in the match saving the break points he faced, while Eubanks was broken late in the first and twice in the second set.

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Thanasi Kokkinakis was one of two Australian players to advance on the day as he defeated Pannu 6-3 6-4. While Alex Bolt was the other, defeating Johns 6-1 6-4. Johns worked himself into the match but it wasn’t enough to extend play beyond the second set.

J.P. Smith wasn’t so lucky, Smith fell to Denis Kudla in a battle that Kudla won 3-6 7-6 6-3, each set had a myriad of break point opportunities, and a late break in the third got Kudla the win. Noah Rubin saved all the break points he faced to defeat Evan King 6-4 6-4.

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Hubert Hurkacz drubbed Ilya Marchenko 6-1 6-1 and draws Kokkinakis in the final round of qualifying. The other pair of final round qualifying matches are Jung vs. Rubin and Kudla vs. Bolt.

After tomorrow the qualifiers will be placed into the newly announced main draw. Jack Sock withdrew from draw after sustaining an injury in practice. John Isner, Nick Kyrgios, Hyeon Chung, and Matt Ebden take the top 4 seeded spots and get byes into the second round. The doubles draw was also announced with star pairings including Mike Bryan and Frances Tiafoe, and Kyrgios/Kokkinakis.

Australians Bernard Tomic and Thanasi Kokkinakis Seek BB&T Atlanta Open Main Draw Berths
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The four qualifying slots will be filled upon the conclusion of the main draw qualifying tournament this weekend at the 2018 BB&T Atlanta Open. Here is your look at the qualifying action.

The top seed in qualifying is Denis Kudla, Kudla had a relatively good grass court season and enters qualifying after losing his second match in Newport. His first round opponent, journeyman J.P. Smith, qualified for Wimbledon but overall has struggled to make a mark this season. Kudla has a good h2h and should be favored.

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Top high school recruit Garrett Johns, a Duke commit, faces off with one of the many Australians in this draw, Alex Bolt. Bolt’s experience should give him an edge. Kudla should be favored to advance from this section.

Columbus State college player Kiranpal Pannu, who won the wild card challenge, will open with Thanasi Kokkinakis. The ATP Next Gen star returned from injury this year. Other than a round of 32 result in Miami he’s struggled to cement himself back on the main tour, but he should be favored in this match.

Hubert Hurkacz qualified for Wimbledon and is another next-gen player looking to find some main tour success. The young Pole faces formerly top 50 Ilya Marchenko, who is returning to tour after a few months off, having lost 5 straight matches in 2018. Hurkacz should be favored in round 1, but his match with Kokkinakis looks like a toss-up.

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Jason Jung is at a career high ranking (131) and he’s been in fantastic form lately, reaching a challenger final and the quarters in Newport. Jung should be favored against the steadily improving local favorite Chris Eubanks who reached the top 200 this season.

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Noah Rubin has won a pair of challenger titles this year, he’ll face a struggling Evan King in the opening round, either Rubin or Jung should qualify from this section.

Bernard Tomic returned to tour in May after limited action between the Australian Open and that point. Tomic has been playing relatively well and should be favored against a less accomplished Tommy Paul, who currently sits outside the top 200.

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French Open qualifier Mohamed Safwat should be favored against Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the opening round. Safwat is the top ranked Egyptian player and reached a career high rank of 163 this season. Tomic will be the favorite from this section.