McDonald falls in first ATP quarterfinal, nears top 100

Mackenzie McDonald, playing in the San Francisco
Challenger in February, will rise to about No. 103
in the world after reaching his first ATP World Tour
quarterfinal. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Playing in his first ATP World Tour quarterfinal, wild card Mackenzie McDonald lost to Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (5) today on grass in the Libema Open in s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.
   McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, led 4-2 in the third-set tiebreaker.
   The 31-year-old Chardy, ranked
No. 72, won the $147,000 Surbiton (Great Britain) Challenger on grass last week.
   McDonald, only 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters) and 160 pounds (73 kilograms), stunned eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-4, 6-2 in the first round and beat qualifier Alex Bolt, a 25-year-old left-hander from Australia, 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.
   Seppi, at No. 49, is the highest-ranked player McDonald has defeated. McDonald has beaten six other top-100 players.
   Two years after sweeping the NCAA singles and doubles titles as a UCLA junior and then turning pro, McDonald is on the verge of cracking the top 100 in the world. The protege of former world No. 6 Wayne Ferreira will rise from No. 110 to No. 101 in Monday's updated rankings.
   McDonald was 0-6 in ATP main-draw matches before s-Hertogenbosch but reached the second round of the Australian Open in January as a qualifier for his first Grand Slam main-draw victory. After beating qualifier Elias Ymer of Sweden in the first round of the main draw, McDonald lost to third-ranked Grigor Dimitov 8-6 in the fifth set.
   McDonald has won two Challenger singles titles: $100,000 tournaments in Fairfield, a 40-minute drive north of Piedmont, last October and Seoul last month.