Qualifier Sarmiento ousts No. 6 seed in 100K Aptos

   Two more seeds lost today in the $100,000 Nordic Naturals Challenger in Aptos, Calif., putting a wild card into the U.S. Open up for grabs.
   Qualifier Raymond Sarmiento, ranked No. 516, stunned fellow American Ernesto Escobedo, seeded sixth, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals at the Seascape Sports Club.
   Also, James McGee of Ireland dismantled No. 9 Mitchell Krueger of the United States 6-3, 6-1. Krueger, from Aledo, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was seeded after No. 8 Dennis Nguyen of the United States withdrew with a right shoulder injury before the tournament.
   Escobedo (80 points) and Krueger (63) lead the U.S. Open Wild Card Challenge, which ends with the Aptos Challenger. The American with the most points in two of three tournaments, which also include $50,000 Binghamton, N.Y., and $50,000 Lexington, Ky., will earn a wild card into the U.S. Open, Aug. 29-Sept. 11 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Escobedo will still receive the U.S. Open wild card unless one of the six Americans left in Aptos -- Sarmiento, No. 3 seed Bjorn Fratangelo, wild card Clay Thompson, qualifier Eric Quigley, Evan King or Sekou Bangoura -- wins the title. Then that player would get the wild card.
   Quigley eliminated Mackenzie McDonald, a 21-year-old Aptos wild card from Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
   With 1 1/2 rounds completed in Aptos, the only seeds left are No. 1 Daniel Evans of Great Britain and Fratangelo.
   Evans, the 2013 Aptos runner-up, will play McGee in Friday's quarterfinals. Evans held a championship point against former Stanford star Bradley Klahn in the 2013 final.
   Fratangelo will face the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Thompson today in the top half of the draw, when the remaining quarterfinal berths are determined. Sarmiento will play Quigley on Friday, ensuring that a qualifier will reach the semifinals. Qualifier Cameron Norrie of Great Britain also remains alive in the bottom half of the draw.
   Fratangelo, a 23-year-old former French Open junior champion, turned pro out of high school. Thompson (UCLA), Sarmiento (USC) , Quigley (Kentucky), King (Michigan) and Bangoura (Florida) are former All-Americans.
   Here are the singles and doubles draws and Thursday's schedule.        

Fairfield top seed dominates suspended match

Top seed Tim Smyczek volleys against Mitchell
Krueger in the Fairfield (Calif.) Challenger. Smy-
czek won all five games in 19 minutes to finish
a suspended match. Photo by Paul Bauman

   FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- If anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt regarding sportsmanship, it's Tim Smyczek.
   In the first round of the Fairfield $50,000 Men's Pro Challenger, the top-seeded Smyczek (pronounced SMEE-check) trailed fellow American Mitchell Krueger by a service break early in the third set on Tuesday evening.
   Smyczek asked for play to be suspended at 6:41 p.m. because the lights at In Shape: Fairfield Rancho Solano were inadequate, and USTA supervisor Keith Crossland agreed.
   "It wasn't a tactic or anything," the 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) Smyczek said today after completing a 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Krueger. "I have a little trouble playing under the lights to begin with. I don't have very good eyes. The lights just aren't up to regulations, so the later it got, the harder it was to see the ball. The chair umpires told me the same thing -- they were having trouble seeing the ball. It was a bit lucky for me that it came at a time when I was down a break.
   "Frankly, we probably should have visited the idea of stopping after the second set, but I was on a bit of a roll and didn't even think of it. It was definitely not a tactic. It did work out in my favor, though."
   Smyczek gained worldwide fame in January for his sportsmanlike gesture late in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-5 loss to Rafael Nadal, who was suffering from nausea and dizziness, in the second round of the Australian Open.
   With Nadal serving at 6-5, 30-0, a fan yelled as Nadal tossed the ball on his first delivery and distracted him. The serve sailed long, but Smyczek allowed Nadal to take another first serve.
   In today's featured match, 17-year-old U.S. phenom Frances Tiafoe eliminated eighth-seeded James McGee of Ireland 6-3, 7-5. The 6-foot-2 (1.88-meter) Tiafoe won 32 of 34 points (94 percent) on his first serve.
   After a McGee serve was called an ace on game point for 4-4 in the second set, the volatile Tiafoe slammed his racket on the court, complained vociferously and asked to see Crossland. Chair umpire Christian Preston refused to summon Crossland and told Tiafoe to play, and Tiafoe calmed down for the rest of the match. 

Krueger said Smyczek "definitely stepped
it up from (Tuesday) night." Photo by
Paul Bauman

   Tiafoe won the prestigious Orange Bowl at 15 in 2013 to become the youngest champion in the tournament's 67-year history. He learned to play at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, a facility in College Park, Md., where his father, an immigrant from Sierra Leone in Africa, worked as a custodian.
   Two Fairfield quarterfinals were set today.
   In the top half of the draw, No. 4 seed Blaz Rola of Slovenia will face No. 5 Jared Donaldson, 19, of Irvine, Calif. Rola, a 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) left-hander, won the 2013 NCAA singles title as a junior at Ohio State and then turned pro.
   In the bottom half, Tiafoe will play Darian King of Barbados. King upset second-seeded Ryan Harrison of Austin, Texas, in the first round. 
   Krueger, who at 21 is six years younger than Smyczek, led 7-6 (5), 2-6, 3-1 when play was suspended on Tuesday. Smyczek reeled off five straight games in 19 minutes, winning 20 of 25 points, to complete the match.    
   "It was the type of (finish) I was hoping for," said the 100th-ranked Smyczek, a Milwaukee product who trains in Tampa, Fla. "I came out ready to go from the first point. I made sure I had a full sweat going before I got out there. I was taking care of my side of the net from the first point."
   Krueger, meanwhile, repeatedly made errors.
   "He did a good job of maybe changing up his game plan, and I came out a little flat," said the 230th-ranked Krueger, who grew up near Fort Worth, Texas, in Aledo and trains in Boca Raton, Fla. "But credit to him. He definitely stepped it up from (Tuesday) night in the five games we played today.
   "He was definitely a lot more aggressive but not giving me a lot of free points. He was still being really solid. I still had my chances, but I gave the break back to him in my first service game. Then it's back even. It's tough. I never really got myself going."

Frances Tiafoe, a 17-year-old U.S. phenom, beat eighth-seeded
James McGee of Ireland 6-3, 7-5. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Krueger did not blame Smyczek for asking Crossland to suspend the match on Tuesday evening.
   "I would have gladly kept playing, but the lights were definitely not great," Krueger said. "It's 100 percent (Smyczek's) right to voice his opinion, and it's up to the supervisor to make the decision.
   "It's not like (Smyczek) did it on purpose. It's completely within the rules. My argument was if we started the third set, you know it's going to run into this problem, and we might as well finish."
   Given that the lights at the club did not meet Challenger regulations, would it have been better to suspend the match after two sets?
   "Yes, in retrospect it might have been," Crossland said, "but the general philosophy I carry is if players are willing to play, I'm willing to let them play. It's a very delicate decision about whether you go stop a match when players prefer to continue to play versus going out there, as I did four games into the third set, and then stop."
   The featured match began at 4:30 p.m., Crossland said, "so sponsors and people who work during the day have the opportunity to come out and watch. It didn't work out as well as it could have."
   The featured match subsequently was moved to 4 p.m. Smyczek will meet another 17-year-old U.S. sensation, Taylor Fritz, on Thursday at that time.
   Fritz, the world's top-ranked junior, dispatched qualifier Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round. He turned pro in August before the U.S. Open, captured the boys singles title at Flushing Meadows and won his first Challenger title last week in Sacramento in only his second attempt.
   "I haven't gotten to see him play much," said Smyczek, whose strengths are consistency, quickness and mental toughness. "I don't know a whole lot about him, but obviously he's playing very well. He won last week, and he won relatively easy in the first round (in Fairfield).
   "It'll be tough. I'll probably do a little homework and see what I'm up against, but it's kind of the same thing as always -- just taking care of my side of the court. I feel like if I focus on the things I do well, the results take care of themselves."
   Sacramento doubles champions Blaz Kavcic and Grega Zemlja of Slovenia lost in the first round to top-seeded Carsten Ball of Australia and Dustin Brown of Germany 6-2, 6-1. Kavcic and Zemlja beat Brown and countryman Daniel Brands 6-1, 3-6 [10-3] in the Sacramento final.    

FAIRFIELD $50,000 MEN'S PRO CHALLENGER
At In Shape: Fairfield Rancho Solano

First-round singles

   Tim Smyczek (1), United States, def. Mitchell Krueger, United States, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3.

Second-round singles

   Jared Donaldson (5), United States, def. Frank Dancevic, Canada, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
   Blaz Rola (4), Slovenia, def. Liam Broady, Great Britain, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
   Frances Tiafoe, United States, def. James McGee (8), Ireland, 6-3, 7-5.
   Darian King, Barbados, def. Peter Polansky, Canada, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

First-round doubles

   Carsten Ball, Australia, and Dustin Brown (1), Germany, def. Blaz Kavcic and Grega Zemlja, Slovenia, 6-2, 6-1.
   Johan Brunstom, Sweden, and Frederik Nielsen (2), Denmark, def. Jason Jung, Taiwan, and Connor Smith, United States, 6-4, 6-2.
   Dean O'Brien and Ruan Roelofse (3), South Africa, def. Ariel Behar, Uruguay, and Ruben Gonzales, Philippines, 4-6, 6-3 [10-6].
   Frank Dancevic, Canada, and Henri Laaksonen, Switzerland, def. Jean-Yves Aubone and Taylor Fritz, United States, 6-4, 6-2.
   Mitchell Krueger and Tennys Sandgren (4), United States, def. Nicolas Barrientos, Colombia, and Darian King, Barbados, 7-5, 6-4.

Thursday's schedule

Stadium Court

(Starting at 11 a.m.)

   Dustin Brown (3), Germany, vs. Tommy Paul, United States.

   Daniel Brands (7), Germany, vs. Alex Kuznetsov, United States.

(Not before 4 p.m.)

   Tim Smyczek (1), United States, vs. Taylor Fritz, United States.

Court 1

(Starting at 11 a.m.)

   Mitchell Krueger and Tennys Sandgren, United States, vs. Philip Bester and Peter Polansky, Canada.

   Blaz Kavcic (8), Slovenia, vs. Jason Jung, Taiwan.

(Not before 2 p.m.)

   Johan Brunstrom, Sweden, and Frederik Nielsen (2), Denmark, vs. Sekou Bangoura, United States, and Jose Statham, New Zealand.

(Not before 3 p.m.)

   Carsten Ball, Australia, and Dustin Brown (1), Germany, vs. Frank Dancevic, Canada, and Henri Laaksonen, Switzerland.

Giant killer McGee routed in Aptos Challenger

   James McGee's euphoria lasted less than 24 hours.
   One day after staging an incredible comeback to shock fourth-seeded Ryan Harrison, the Irishman was routed by fellow qualifier Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday in the second round of the $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger at the Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif.
   "My opponent played great today and I didn't execute," McGee tweeted. "Good week overall but need to get better. Thanks for the savage support this week!"
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Dustov won 27 of 29 points (93 percent) on his first serve. He will face American wild card Tennys Sandgren in today's quarterfinals. Sandgren outlasted Yuichi Sugita of Japan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Top-seeded Guido Pella of Argentina eliminated Brian Baker of the United States 6-4, 6-4. Baker was playing in his first tournament since undergoing knee surgery in January. He also missed most of six years (2005-11) while having five major operations.
   Pella will meet Great Britain's Daniel Evans, who beat eighth-seeded Jimmy Wang 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Evans, only 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), was the runner-up in last week's Vancouver Challenger to Vasek Pospisil of Canada. 
   Pella is one of four left-handers in the Comerica quarterfinals. The others are fifth-seeded Wayne Odesnik and Bradley Klahn of the United States and seventh-seeded Mischa Zverev, a Moscow native who plays for Germany.
   USTA junior nationals -- Two Northern Californians, unseeded Collin Altamirano of Yuba City and Logan Staggs of Tracy, reached the quarterfinals of the USTA Boys 18 Nationals in Kalamazoo, Mich. They are on opposite sides of the draw.
   Taylor Townsend, who played for the Sacramento Capitals in World TeamTennis last month, advanced to the quarters of the USTA Girls 18 Nationals in San Diego.
   In the boys 14s in San Antonio, third-seeded Conrad Russell of Palo Alto will take on second-seeded Maxwell Mendelsohn of Little Rock, Ark., in today's semifinals.
   In the boys 12s in Little Rock, top-seeded Jenson Brooksby of Sacramento will meet sixth-seeded Nathan Han of Tulsa, Okla., in today's semis. The sixth-seeded pair of Brooksby and Scott Sculley of Churchville, Md., will play for the doubles title today against seventh-seeded William Grant of Santa Barbara and Garrett Johns of Atlanta.    

$100,000 COMERICA BANK CHALLENGER

At Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif.

Second-round singles

   Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan, def. James McGee, Ireland, 6-2, 6-1.
   Tennys Sandgren, United States, def. Yuichi Sugita, Japan, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
   Daniel Evans, Great Britain, def. Jimmy Wang (8), Taiwan, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
   Guido Pella (1), Argentina, def. Brian Baker, United States, 6-4, 6-4.

Doubles quarterfinals

   Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram (3), Israel, def. Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, and Denys Molchanov, Ukraine, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 1-0 (10-7).
   Tatsuma Ito and Hiroki Moriya, Japan, def. Marcos Giron and Raymond Sarmiento, United States, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-4).
   Ruben Bemelmans, Belgium, and Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, def. Maxime Authom and Olivier Rochus, Belgium, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (2), 1-0 (10-4).
   Chris Guccione and Matt Reid (4), Australia, def. Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan, and Malek Jaziri, Tunisia, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-2).

Today's schedule

Center Court

(Starting at 11 a.m.)

   Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan, vs. Tennys Sandgren, United States.
   Wayne Odesnik (5), United States, vs. Bradley Klahn, United States.

(Not before 3 p.m.)

   Mischa Zverev (7), Germany, vs. Evgeny Donskoy (2), Russia.

(Not before 5:15 p.m.)

   Guido Pella (1), Argentina, vs. Daniel Evans, Great Britain.

Irish eyes are smiling: McGee rallies to stun Harrison

James McGee, a qualifier from Ireland, rallied from a 5-1
deficit in the third set to beat fourth-seeded Ryan Harrison.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   APTOS, Calif. – James McGee was toast.

   The 26-year-old Irish qualifier trailed fourth-seeded Ryan Harrison 5-1 in the third set today in the first round of the $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger.
   No way was McGee, ranked No. 269 in the world, going to come back against the 21-year-old American, who was taking a rare break from the elite ATP World Tour.
   Granted, Harrison has dropped to No. 104 after reaching a career-high No. 43 just over one year ago. But only last week, he knocked off former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, 32, in the first round at Washington, D.C., before losing to eventual champion and 2009 U.S. Open titlist Juan Martin del Potro. The previous week, Harrison advanced to the semifinals in Atlanta.
   Let's put the apparent mismatch this way. Even though Harrison is five years younger, he has earned 17 times as much career prize money as McGee: $1,309,175 to $77,003.
   But McGee somehow won six straight games to stun Harrison 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 at the Seascape Sports Club.
   "It was probably one of the biggest wins of my career, especially the way it was done," McGee said. "Coming back from 1-5 was nice."
   It was also one of the biggest upsets in the 26-year history of the Comerica Bank Challenger, which is notorious for them. No top seed has won the singles title.

   In a later matchup of American left-handers, former Stanford star Bradley Klahn defeated 2007 Comerica champion Donald Young 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
   Klahn, the 2010 NCAA champion as a sophomore before undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in October 2011, is playing a one-hour drive south of Stanford. Young had edged third-seeded Steve Johnson, the defending champion, in the first round on Tuesday.

Harrison, 21, reached No. 43 in the world last
year and defeated former world No. 1 Lleyton
Hewitt last week. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The Harrison-McGee match had been suspended at one set apiece on Tuesday evening because the lights on Center Court did not meet USTA specifications. Tournament supervisor Mike Loo gave the players the option of continuing for about 30 minutes or playing a full set today. Harrison left it up to McGee, who chose the latter.

   Harrison's gesture wasn't necessarily as magnanimous as it might seem. For McGee, it was essentially a no-win situation. Continue, and Harrison had the momentum. Stop, and McGee had all night to contemplate a huge upset and get nervous.

   That's exactly what happened. Harrison came out firing and broke McGee's serve in the first game with a backhand passing shot down the line. Before McGee knew it, he was down 4-0. But then he loosened up and Harrison got tight.  

   "I started off the third set tentative," conceded McGee, who will play qualifier Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan on Thursday for a quarterfinal berth. "Ryan really took it to me in terms of his aggression, and I felt on the back foot all the time.
   "At 5-1, I hadn't given up, but I had gotten to a place where I said, 'It's sort of all or nothing now. You might as well just go for it. If I am to lose the match, lose it the right way.'
   "At 5-2 down, I was thinking, 'I've probably lost this match.' He's serving with new balls (which fly faster because the felt hasn't fluffed up yet), and he's got a huge serve. The biggest shift was a change in my mentality, going from tentative to more relaxed and going for it. I started going for winners and coming to the net."   
   Still, the match appeared to be headed to a decisive tiebreaker when Harrison served at 5-6, 40-15. But he lost the next four points, three after second serves, and the match. McGee ripped a return-of-serve backhand winner, Harrison hit an easy inside-out forehand wide and a conventional forehand long, and McGee ended matters by returning Harrison's second serve with a backhand passing shot down the line.
   Tom Gullikson, a lead national men's coach for the USTA, is working with Harrison for the first time this week. Gullikson, 61, has seen it all as a former top-five doubles player in the world, U.S. Davis Cup captain and U.S. Olympic men's coach in addition to his current role. But he was dumbfounded by Harrison's collapse.
   When asked what went wrong after Harrison led 4-0 in the third set, a subdued Gullikson said: "That's a very good question. You'll have to ask him. My view is he was playing very good tennis at the beginning of the third set. He had a very good warmup today, a good hit. He was ready to play and very eager to go out there and play a good set.
   "Obviously, he got off to a great start, up 4-0, up 5-1. Serving at 5-2, up two breaks, he should feel pretty confident. But in the 5-2 game, he played very tentative. He wasn't going for his shots, didn't get many first serves in, really lost the rhythm on his first serve, and the guy made some returns and some good shots. The  guy probably figured he was going to lose and started being more aggressive, and Ryan gave him too many short balls.
   "Same thing (in the) 5-4 game. He didn't get many first serves, the guy was playing solid and aggressive, and Ryan was just playing too tight. He just wasn't hitting his shots. It's disappointing, to say the least. ... This will not be on his career highlight reel, that's for sure."      

   After the players shook hands at the net, Harrison made a remark to McGee near umpire Marc Bell's chair that the winner politely declined to reveal.

   "It (wouldn't be) fair for either of us," said McGee, adding that it didn't bother him.

   McGee behaved impeccably throughout the match. But Harrison, who was not available for comment, was out of sorts from the start. His attitude seemed to be, "This tournament is beneath me."

   After a line call against Harrison in the second game of the first set on Tuesday, he loudly admonished Bell, "Do you realize the players have all been saying, 'Watch out for the line calls'? Second game ... "

    After losing a point for 0-40 on his serve in the first game of the second set, Harrison smashed his racket on the court and received a warning for racket abuse. He then calmed down, holding serve in that game, until McGee rallied on Wednesday. 

   At that stage, Harrison swore several times after points while the crowd cheered so Bell couldn't hear him. Late in the match, Harrison muttered, "This mother-----r can't play tennis to save his life."
   When a fan took her seat in between points, Harrison condescendingly told Bell: "You might not know this, but that's unprofessional. This is a professional tournament."
   Said Gullikson: "It's always hard to be in the major leagues and then come down a level. He played this event to get some good matches and get ready for the U.S. Open (in 2 1/2 weeks)."
   McGee graciously defended Harrison.  
   "He's intense, like me," McGee said. "A lot of players are very intense. He's a great competitor, a great fighter. If you had to describe him, you'd say he's got a lot of fire, maybe a bit too much fire at times.
   "I understand when guys might lose the head or do something they shouldn't because I've been there as well. Off the court, he's just a normal guy."
   Gullikson diplomatically said Harrison "has had a problem a little bit with his temper in the past. That's something that he needs to manage."
   There was also an upset in doubles as Maxime Authom and Olivier Rochus of Belgium beat top-seeded Purav Raja and Divij Sharan of India 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.
   Authom upset top-seeded Brian Baker in the first round of singles in last year's Comerica Bank Challenger. The 5-foot-5 (1.65-meter) Rochus, 32, won the 2004 French Open doubles title with countryman Xavier Malisse and the 1998 Wimbledon junior boys doubles crown with Roger Federer.
   Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, the third seeds in Aptos and 2008 Australian Open doubles champions, defeated James Cerretani of the United States and Michael Venus of New Zealand 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round.
   Capital gains -- Last week's Citi Open in Washington, D.C., was a good tournament for men and women with Sacramento-area ties.
   Dmitry Tursunov, a Moscow native who trains in Granite Bay, reached the singles semifinals to jump from No. 61 to No. 43 in the world rankings. The 30-year-old veteran has been plagued by injuries since reaching a career-high No. 20 in 2006.
   Mardy Fish and Taylor Townsend, teammates on the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis last month, reached the men's and women's doubles finals, respectively.
   Fish, a 31-year-old Los Angeles resident, and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic lost to Julien Benneteau of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 7-6 (5), 7-5 in a matchup of unseeded teams.
   Fish, who has played sporadically for the past 18 months because of heart palpitations, soared 203 places in the doubles rankings to No. 141. He climbed to a career-high No. 14 in 2009.
   The unseeded Townsend, 17, from Boca Raton, Fla., and Eugenie Bouchard, 19, of Canada fell to No. 1 seeds Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Vera Dushevina of Russia 6-3, 6-3. Townsend, who won the Wimbledon junior girls doubles title with Bouchard last year, skyrocketed 239 notches to No. 294 in the world.  

$100,000 COMERICA BANK CHALLENGER

At Seascape Sports Club in Aptos, Calif.

First-round singles

   James McGee, Ireland, def. Ryan Harrison (4), United States, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Second-round singles

   Mischa Zverev (7), Germany, def. Dennis Novikov, United States, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

   Wayne Odesnik (5), United States, def. Denys Molchanov, Ukraine, 6-3.6-2.

   Evgeny Donskoy (2), Russia, def. Ruben Bemelmans, Belgium, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

   Bradley Klahn, United States, def. Donald Young, United States, 6-4, 6-4.

First-round doubles

   Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram (3), Israel, def. James Cerretani, United States, and Michael Venus, New Zealand, 6-3, 6-4.

   Marcos Giron and Raymond Sarmiento, United States, def. Jeff Dadamo and Dennis Novikov, United States, 6-3, 6-4

   Maxime Authom and Olivier Rochus, Belgium, def. Purav Raja and Divij Sharan (1), India, 6-4, 6-2.

   Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, and Denys Molchanov, Ukraine, def. Bjorn Fratangelo and Mitchell Krueger, United States, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3).

   Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan, and Malek Jaziri, Tunisia, def. Wayne Odesnik and Tennys Sandgren, United States, 7-5, 7-5.

   Tatsuma Ito and Hiroki Moriya, Japan, def. Andre Dome and Jordan Kepler, United States, 6-4, 6-1.   

Thursday's schedule

Center Court

(Starting at 10 a.m.)

   James McGee, Ireland, vs. Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan.
   Tennys Sandgren, United States, vs. Yuichi Sugita, Japan.  
   Daniel Evans, Great Britain, vs. Jimmy Wang (8), Taiwan.

(Not before 3 p.m.)

   Maxime Authom and Olivier Rochus, Belgium, vs. Ruben Bemelmans, Belgium, and Frederik Nielsen, Denmark.

(Not before 5:15 p.m.)

   Guido Pella (1), Argentina, vs. Brian Baker, United States.

Court 5

(Starting at 1 p.m.)

   Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, and Denys Molchanov, Ukraine, vs. Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram (3), Israel.

(Not before 3:30 p.m.)

   Tatsuma Ito and Hioki Moriya, Japan, vs. Marcos Giron and Raymond Sarmiento, United States.

(Not before 4:30 p.m.)

   Chris Guccione and Matt Reid (4), Australia, vs. Farrukh Dustov, Uzbekistan, and Malek Jaziri, Tunisia.