Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

Winston-Salem

Singles – Third Round: (2) K. Anderson (WC) def. (16) J. Janowicz 7-6(7-2) 6-4 This leaves Jerzy Janowicz still below #50 — probably below #60. Kevin Anderson has yet to add anything that counts.

Singles – Third Round: (13) S. Johnson def. (3) J. Tsonga 6-3 4-6 7-6(7-4) Talk about frustrating for Steve Johnson — and we’re not talking about how long this match took. What’s frustrating is, he scored a very good win here, and is the only seed left in the top half of the Winston-Salem draw — but he still hasn’t budged his ranking; he remains stuck at #49 in safe points. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also remains stuck; he’s at #19.

Singles – Third Round: (6) T. Bellucci def. (11) J. Vesely 6-1 6-7(7-9) 6-4 Thomaz Bellucci should have won this in the second set; he had a match point on serve in the tiebreak. He had a third set lead, too, and blew that. He made up for it by breaking in the last game of the match, but how much will that extra time on the court cost him? The good news is, one more win would effectively guarantee that he stays Top Thirty.

Singles – Third Round: (8) B. Coric def. D. Schwartzman 6-2 6-1 The points are starting to count for Borna Coric; this might take him as high as #33. Another win might possibly make him Top Thirty.

Singles – Third Round: M. Jaziri def. (15) T. Gabashvili 7-5 6-4 Teymuraz Gabashvili has made something of a career of making a big run up the rankings and then collapsing and falling steeply. This week, Gabashvili is up to #53 (he hit a career high of #50 about a month ago), so it looks like the decline is starting again; it appears he won’t be making the Top Fifty this week.

Singles – Third Round: Y. Lu def. H. Chung 7-6(7-1) 1-6 7-5 We might label this the battle between the past and the future of Asian tennis. And while the future may be now, the past certainly isn’t going without a fight! A two and a half hour fight, in fact. We’d guess this will put The Past, er, Yen-Hsun Lu, back in the Top Hundred, although probably not by much.

Singles – Third Round: (Q) P. Herbert def. A. Bedene 6-3 6-0 This has been a breakthrough year for Pierre-Hugues Herbert in doubles; could he be bringing that to singles as well? This is one of the best results of his life, although he remains below #100. (Quarterfinal points at a 250 point event simply don’t make much difference.) He leaves Aljaz Bedene still below #50.

Singles – Third Round: P. Carreno Busta def. S. Bolelli 6-4 4-6 6-1 After all he’s been through in the last month, it’s little surprise that Simone Bolelli ran out of steam; it’s amazing that he did as well as he did. But he’ll remain below the Top Fifty.

Doubles – First Round: Sa/Sitak def. (2) Huey/Marrero 7-6(7-3) 6-7(8-10) 10-6 David Marrero is still ranked #25 in doubles, but it doesn’t feel like he’s doing that well; this has been a tough year for him.

Doubles – First Round: (3) Butorac/Lipsky def. Andujar/Demoliner 6-3 6-3 Pablo Andujar probably shouldn’t even have bothered coming here — he lost his opener in both singles and doubles.

Doubles – First Round: (4) Inglot/Lindstedt def. Gabashvili/Sousa 6-3 6-2

Doubles – First Round: (WC) Harrison/Harrison def. (WC) Mansouri/Seraphim 6-2 6-4 We assume that there is a back story here about how a Tunisian ranked #1590 and an unranked German, neither of who has ever played an ATP match, came together (presumably it’s a college story) — but it doesn’t look like it will be a story about a big career success, given that they lost easily to the Harrisons, one of whom (Christian) is himself unranked in doubles.

Doubles – First Round: Fyrstenberg/Qureshi def. Marray/Venus 3-6 6-3 10-6 It will tell you how tough this year has been for Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Aisam Qureshi that they are unseeded at this weak event.

Doubles – First Round: Carreno Busta/Garcia-Lopez def. Monroe/Paire 1-6 7-6(7-2) 10-7 A very strange match, in which Monroe/Paire kept building big leads and then blowing them, including in the match tiebreak where they let Carreno Busta/Garcia-Lopez come back from multiple mini-breaks down. It took only about an hour and a quarter. It had enough goofiness for a match at least twice that long.

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.