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

Five of the top seeds were in action for the quarterfinal round at the Fairfield Men’s Pro Challenger presented by Francis Ford Coppola Winery today, with two of the five moving on to Saturday’s semi-finals.

American teens Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz will also advance following strong performances, which could set the stage for an All-American final between the two 17 year olds if they are victorious in their respective semi-final matches tomorrow.

Today’s feature match pitted Daniel Brands against fellow German Dustin “Dreddy” Brown. The 3 set match ended with Brown as the victor 7-6, 3-6, 6-1. This was the fourth singles meeting between the two good friends, with 3 previous wins for Brands and the most recent victory going to Brown in Munich in 2012. Brands and Brown had also teamed up for doubles last week in the Sacramento $100K, losing in the finals to Blaz Kavic and Grega Zemlja.

After claiming the first, Brown lost some focus in returning Brands’ serve in the second set, losing the first 3 games and eventually the set. He regained momentum in the third, to the delight of the crowd he came on especially strong with his serve and volley strategy, with risky big second serves (with a match total of 21 aces), and powerful overheads to pressure Brands for the win.

While Brown is well known both for his “unconventional” appearance and playing style, and his winning record against Rafael Nadal, Brands has had equally impressive wins in his career over top 10 world ranked players such as Roger Federer, David Ferrer and Nikolay Davydenko.

Brown will play Frances Tiafoe tomorrow in the singles semi-finals, and then join partner Carsten Ball (Australia) to face American duo Mitchell Krueger and Tennys Sandgren in the doubles semi-final.

The Fairfield Men’s Pro Challenger resumes tomorrow with matches beginning at 12pm.

Fairfield Men’s Pro Challenge
A USTA Pro Circuit Event
Friday, October 16, 2015
In-Shape Fairfield: Rancho Solano
Fairfield, CA
Purse: $50,000
Surface: Hard-outdoor

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015 – RESULTS

MAIN DRAW SINGLES – QUARTERFINALS
Frances Tiafoe (USA) def.Darian King (BAR) 6-4, 7-6, 6-4
Taylor Fritz (USA) def. [6] Blaz Kavcic (SLO)  6-4, 6-1
[4] Blaz Rola (SLO) def. [5] Jared Donaldson (USA) 6-1, 6-2
[3] Dustin Brown (GER) def. [7] Daniel Brands (GER) 7-6, 3-6, 6-1

MAIN DRAW DOUBLES – QUARTERFINALS
[2] Johan Brunstrom (SWE) / Frederik Nielsen (DEN) def. [3] Dean O’Brien (RSA) / Ruan Roelofse (RSA) 6-7(7) 7-6(5) 10-4

ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2015

STADIUM COURT start 12:00 noon
[3] Dustin Brown (GER) vs Frances Tiafoe (USA)
Taylor Fritz (USA) vs [4] Blaz Rola (SLO)

Not Before 2:00 pm
After Appropriate Rest – [1] Carsten Ball (AUS) / Dustin Brown (GER) vs [4] Mitchell Krueger (USA) / Tennys Sandgren (USA)

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