Escobedo advances as Young quits in $108K Tiburon

Ernesto Escobedo, playing in Aptos, Calif., last month,
is ranked No. 218 after reaching a career-high No. 67
in 2017. Photo by Paul Bauman 

   In a clash of American former top-100 players, 15th-seeded Ernesto Escobedo beat Donald Young 6-1, 4-2, retired today in the second round of the $108,320 First Republic Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger at the Tiburon Peninsula Club.
   Escobedo, 23, is ranked No. 218 after reaching a career-high No. 67 in 2017. He won the title in Granby, Quebec, and advanced to the semis in Aptos, Calif., in consecutive Challengers over the summer.
   Young, a 30-year-old left-hander, has tumbled from a career-high No. 38 in 2012 to No. 242. He has reached the third round of a tournament only once since April.
   Escobedo is scheduled to play fourth-seeded Emilio Gomez of Ecuador on Thursday. Gomez, the 27-year-old son of 1990 French Open champion Andres Gomez and a semifinalist last week in Columbus, Ohio, outlasted Michael Pervolarakis of Greece 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.
   Fifth-seeded Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark beat Ryan Peniston of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Torpegaard, 25, reached the quarterfinals in Columbus, where he starred at Ohio State. Torpegaard advanced to the NCAA singles quarterfinals and doubles final with Martin Joyce last year.
   Another former Buckeyes standout, 20-year-old J.J. Wolf, topped American Alexander Sarkissian, the 2014 NCAA runner-up from Pepperdine, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-4 in 2 hours, 39 minutes. Wolf reached the Columbus final, losing to Peter Polansky of Canada.
   Polansky, the 2013 Tiburon champion, is set to play American Sekou Bangoura on Wednesday in the second round. All 16 singles seeds received first-round byes.
   Here are the updated Tiburon singles and doubles draws and Wednesday's schedule.

Wake, Ole Miss players claim NCAA singles titles

   The Wake Forest men made the most of their homecourt advantage in the NCAA Championships.
   After the Demon Deacons won the team title at home in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Tuesday, two of their players met in today's singles final. No. 4 seed Petros Chrysochos, a junior from Cyprus, defeated No. 7 Borna Gojo, a sophomore from Croatia, 6-3, 6-3.
   It was the first time in 20 years and fourth time in history that two men from the same school played for the NCAA title. In 1998, Stanford's Bob Bryan defeated Paul Goldstein in Athens, Ga.
   In today's women's final, No. 6 Arianne Hartono, a Mississippi senior from the Netherlands, beat No. 9-16 Ashley Lahey, a Pepperdine sophomore from Hawthorne in the Los Angeles area, 6-4, 6-2. Lahey was Hartono's third straight Pepperdine opponent.
   International players swept the singles titles for the first time since Cal's Suzi Babos (Hungary) and UCLA's Benjamin Kohllhoeffel (Germany) in 2006. Americans had won four consecutive men's titles and six straight women's crowns.
   Today's doubles finals featured four unseeded teams.
   UCLA's Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu saved a match point in their 6-7 (8), 7-6 (4) [11-9] victory over Ohio State's Martin Joyce and Mikael Torpegaard.
   Redlicki, a senior from Boca Raton, Fla., also won the 2016 NCAA doubles title with Mackenzie McDonald, from Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   As for Torpegaard, you have to feel for the guy. The senior from Denmark also lost to McDonald 6-3, 6-3 in the 2016 NCAA singles final and fell to Chrysochos in last week's singles quarterfinals in a third-set tiebreaker. Furthermore, Ohio State lost to Wake Forest 4-2 in last week's team final.
   LSU's Jessica Golovin and Eden Richardson outclassed Vladica Babic and Sofia Blanco of Oklahoma State 6-3, 6-2.
   All finals were moved indoors because of rain.