Sunday, October 16, 2016

Giraldo, Halys work overtime to reach Fairfield final

No. 2 seed Santiago Giraldo, shown Thursday, and Quentin
Halys each won two matches on Saturday in the rain-delayed
Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger. Photo by Paul Bauman
   Second-seeded Santiago Giraldo and unseeded Quentin Halys each won two matches on Saturday to reach the final of the rain-delayed Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger at Solano Community College.
   Giraldo, 28, of Colombia beat seventh-seeded Grega Zemlja of Slovenia 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and Joris De Loore of Belgium 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals.
   The 6-foot (1.83-meter) Zemlja (pronounced ZEM-lee-uh) pounded five aces in one game but was broken, live-stream commentator Mike Cation tweeted.
   Halys (pronounced Ah-LEECE), a 19-year-old Frenchman, topped Maximilian Marterer, a German left-hander, by retirement (left shoulder) after leading 6-0, 0-0. Halys then beat qualifier Brydan Klein of Great Britain 6-2, 6-4.
   Giraldo and Halys are scheduled to meet for the first time today at 12:30 p.m., but rain could push back the match one or two hours.
   Giraldo has plummeted from a career-high No. 28 in September 2014 to No. 124. He won the $50,000 Sacramento Challenger in 2009 and has finished each of the past six years in the top 70.
   Halys, ranked No. 170, ousted top-seeded Frances Tiafoe in the second round.
   In Saturday's all-American doubles final, wild cards Brian Baker and Mackenzie McDonald outclassed unseeded Sekou Bangoura and Eric Quigley 6-3, 6-4.
   It was the 31-year-old Baker's second Challenger doubles title in two weeks. He won last week's $100,000 Stockton Challenger with Sam Groth of Australia.
   Baker has undergone 11 operations (both hips, right elbow, sports hernia and four repairs of his right knee). He lsot in the first round of Olympic singles in Rio de Janeiro in August to Yuichi Sugita of Japan.
   McDonald, a 21-year-old native of Piedmont in the nearby San Francisco Bay Area, captured his first Challenger title in singles or doubles. In Futures tournaments, he has won one singles championship and four doubles crowns.
   Here are the updated Fairfield singles and doubles draws and today's schedule.

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