Friday, October 13, 2017

Three seeds fall in 100K Fairfield quarterfinals

   Three seeds lost today in the quarterfinals of the Northbay Healthcare Men's Pro Championships, leaving only one in the $100,000 tourmament at Solano Community College in Fairfield, Calif.
   No. 2 Tennys Sandgren fell to Mackenzie McDonald, who grew up in nearby Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
   McDonald, who won the doubles title last year with compatriot Brian Baker, defeated Sandgren, ranked No. 98, for the first time in six career matches. They met for the fifth time this year.
   McDonald will play qualifier Chris O'Connell of Australia for the first time in Saturday's first semifinal at noon. O'Connell outlasted third-seeded Bjorn Fratangelo of Orlando, Fla., 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-4.
   In Saturday's second semifinal, fourth-seeded Maximilian Marterer of Germany will face former Stanford star Bradley Klahn of Poway in a matchup of left-handers. It will be a rematch of Sunday's final in a $100,000 hard-court tournament at Monterrey (Mexico), won by Marterer 7-6 (3), 7-5 (3) in his first career meeting with Klahn.  
   Klahn advanced today with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over eighth-seeded Nikola Milojevic of Serbia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Each of Klahn's three victories in the tournament has come in three sets. He knocked off top-seeded Ernesto Escobedo, a resident of West Covina in the Los Angeles region ranked No. 91, on Thursday.
   Marterer defeated qualifier and countryman Sebastian Fanselow 6-4, 7-5.
   The tournament remained at Solano Community College as USTA on-site supervisor Keith Crossland deemed the air quality adequate for play as wildfires continue to blaze in the nearby wine country.
   Crossland will evaluate the air quality again on Saturday at 11 a.m. and decide whether to keep the matches at Solano or move them to the University of California, Davis, a 30-minute drive to the northeast.
   McDonald also reached the doubles semifinals, this time with Mikelis Libietis of Latvia. The unseeded pair surprised top-seeded Neal Skupski of Great Britain and John-Patrick Smith of Australia 7-6 (3), 7-5.
   Both McDonald (UCLA) and Libietis (Tennessee) are former NCAA doubles champions. The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald swept the singles and doubles titles last year as a junior, then turned pro.
   Here are the Fairfield singles and doubles draws and Saturday's schedule. The tournament is being streamed live.

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