Monday, March 22, 2021

Brooksby, 20, triumphs in ATP Tour debut

   Making his ATP Tour debut, 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael, Calif., in the Sacramento area, beat fifth-seeded Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-1 today in the first round of qualifying for the prestigious Miami Open.
   Brooksby has won 10 of his last 11 matches. After turning pro in December, he claimed his first Challenger title in Potchefstroom, South Africa, and lost to Bjorn Fratangelo on Saturday in the final of the Cleveland Challenger.
   Brooksby has played in two Grand Slam tournaments, losing to John Millman in the first round of the 2018 U.S. Open as a qualifier and stunning former world No. 4 Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up, to reach the second round of the 2019 U.S. Open as a wild-card qualifier. 
   Laaksonen, a 28-year-old Finland native with a Finnish mother and Swiss father, has qualified for the last two Grand Slam tournaments. He lost in the first round of the 2020 French Open and this year's Australian Open.
   Laaksonen and Harri Heliovaara of Finland reached the doubles final in the 2018 Fairfield, Calif., Challenger, losing to Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia.
   Brooksby is set to take on 22nd-seeded Thomas Fabbiano of Italy for the first time on Tuesday for a main-draw berth. Fabbiano topped Roberto Quiroz of Ecuador 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Top-seeded Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, routed Roberto Cid Subervi of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 6-1.
   McDonald was the only U.S. man to reach the fourth round of last month's Australian Open. Cid Subervi, 27, has lost his last six matches.
   McDonald, 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters), will face 19th-seeded Ivo Karlovic, 42, of Croatia. The 6-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Karlovic defeated Tasuma Ito of Japan 6-3, 7-6 (3).
   Karlovic beat McDonald 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying for the 2013 U.S. Open in their only previous meeting.
   In the opening round of women's qualifying, 21st-seeded Kristie Ahn, a 28-year-old Stanford graduate, downed fellow American Francesca Di Lorenzo, a 23-year-old left-hander, 6-1, 6-4. 
  Ahn will meet Olga Danilovic, 20, of Serbia for the first time. Danilovic outlasted eighth-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4.
   College men — No. 22 Govind Nanda beat No. 3 Alexandre Rotsaert 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Court 2 to give No. 23 UCLA a 4-3 victory over visiting Stanford.
   The Bruins improved to 6-2 overall and 2-0 in the Pacific-12 Conference. The Cardinal fell to 2-1 and 0-1.

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