TALLAHASSEE, April 28, 2015
US-American Tennys Sandgren kicked off play on Monday at the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger with an early upset, ousting two-time finalist Frank Dancevic in three sets.
After losing the first set, the 2013 doubles champion rallied back to defeat the No.3 seed 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 and book his spot in the second round of the singles main draw in Tallahassee for the first time.
Tennys Sandgren advanced to the second round (photo: Tallahassee Challenger)
No.4 seed Jason Kubler and No.5 seed Facundo Arguello both advanced Monday, along with Great Britain’s Liam Broady and France’s Vincent Millot.
Former Florida State University Men’s Tennis standout Jean-Yves Aubone won his first round match, though it was no easy feat.
Vincent Millot is currenly ranked on 220th position (photo: Tallahassee Challenger)
It took the two-time All-American nearly three hours to defeat qualifier Jose (Rubin) Statham 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 and solidify his second round spot. Aubone is through to the second round in Tallahassee for the second time in his career, having done so previously in 2009.
In his Tallahassee debut, American young gun Jared Donaldson got off to a slow start as he took on FSU’s No.1 player Benjamin Lock.
Lock broke twice to take the first set. Donaldson got his first break of the match in the second set to force the Zimbabwe native to a decider. The 18-year-old American took complete control in the third, clinching the win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
On the doubles side of things, it was a tale of three set matches. The young British duo of Luke Bambridge and Liam Broady defeated top seed Ken and Neal Skupski 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-5, while the Argentinian pair of Facundo Arguello/Andrea Collarini ousted Americans Stefan Kozlov and Rhyne Williams 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.
In 2013, the tournament made a switch from hard courts to Har-Tru green clay, making it the final stop of the Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenge and joining forces with other USTA Pro Circuit events in Sarasota and Savannah. In the Challenge, the American with the most rankings points in two of the three events earns the U.S. wild card into the French Open. Tiafoe leads the Wild Card Challenge Standings with 47 points. Fratangelo follows with 37, Donaldson has 40, and Krueger holds 23.
