Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki prevailed in a wild first-set tiebreaker en route to a 7-6 (10), 7-6 (3) upset of No. 3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday in a second-round match at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington.
Watanuki jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set’s tiebreaker, but Auger-Aliassime stormed back and eventually held leads of 5-4 and 9-8. But Watanuki held firm, and on his fifth set point, he was finally able to get past the Canadian.
Australian Jordan Thompson was also able to oust a ranked opponent, beating No. 7 seed Adrian Mannarino of France 7-5, 6-4. Fellow Frenchman Gregoire Barrere also fell, losing 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 to ninth-seeded Daniel Evans of Great Britain.
Other Wednesday winners included Dutch No. 12 seed Tallon Griekspoor, Americans Christopher Eubanks (No. 11 seed) and J.J. Wolf (No. 16), Frenchmen Ugo Humbert (No. 13) and Gael Monfils and Great Britain’s Andy Murray (No. 15).
In an all-American showdown, No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz was set to play qualifier Zachary Svajda in the final match of the night.
Generali Open
Alex Molcan of Slovakia rallied to post a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory, stunning fifth seed Sebastian Ofner in his home country in the second round at Kitzbuhel, Austria.
Molcan had just six aces compared to Ofner’s 10, but the former saved nine of 14 break points and overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker to advance to the quarterfinals. Molcan will next face Argentina’s Sebastian Baez, who also pulled off an upset on Wednesday, beating No. 6 seed Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain 6-1, 6-2.
France’s Arthur Rinderknech and Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan also got the best of seeded foes, while Austrian wild card Dominic Thiem, No. 5 seed Laslo Djere of Serbia and Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry (No. 1) and Pedro Cachin (No. 3) won their respective matches.
-Field Level Media
