By Tennis Now | Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Hyeon Chung edged Feliciano Lopez, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (3), to snap a three-match losing streak.
Photo credit: Citi Open
Learning from loss powered a pair of breakthrough wins in Montreal.
Ernesto Escobedo, a 21-year-old lucky loser, won big and 21-year-old baseliner Hyeon Chung snapped a three-match losing streak today.
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Escobedo earned a spot in the main draw when Tomas Berdych withdrew from the tournament with a rib injury.
On short notice, the world No. 85 capitalized on his good fortune riding timely serving and twisting forehands to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili.
After Escobedo endured a painful 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) loss to 245th-ranked Christian Harrison in the qualifying round, he stuck around the tournament.
The Californian started his day hitting with Kei Nishikori and got the call he would play on stadium court a few minutes before the scheduled start time of the match.
“Grabbed my racquet and that was my warm up,” Escobedo told Tennis Channel’s Chanda Rubin. “I don’t know much about him. I just tried to go on the court, be in the moment and have fun.”
Racing out to a 4-1 lead, Escobedo hit his forehand with clarity in taking the tie break.
“I just told myself in that moment to stay positive and go for my shots and just trust myself and that’s what I did,” said Escobedo, who will play Dutchman Robin Haase for a place in the round of 16.
The 56th-ranked Chung fought off 2014 semifinalist Feliciano Lopez, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (3), in a tight two-hour, 13-minute test.
Chung, who had posted a 3-5 hard-court record this season, repeatedly targeted Lopez’s forehand wing in the decisive tie break.
The left-handed Lopez tightened up and completely unraveled in the tie break.
The 35-year-old Spaniard opened with the mini break, but gave it right back bungling a routine smash.
Pushing successive meek forehands into net, Lopez fell into a 1-3 hole. Spraying a wild forehand wide, Lopez shook his head trailing 3-5. Chung wisely attacked that wing earning match points on Lopez’s fourth forehand error of the breaker.
The match ended on Lopez’s eighth double fault.
Chung will play either ninth-seeded David Goffin or Yuichi Sugita next.
Fresh off beating Thanasi Kokkinakis to win Los Cabos over the weekend, Sam Querrey rallied past French qualifier Vincent Millot, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5, to extend his winning streak to five matches.
It was Querrey’s second win over Millot in less than a week. The 20th-ranked American clubbed 18 aces.
Querrey will play eighth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round.
That match is a rematch of the Wimbledon third round, which Querrey won in a five-set thriller.
Borna Coric carved up lucky loser Mikhail Youzhny, 6-2, 6-4, setting up a second-round clash with top-seeded Rafael Nadal.
The world No. 2 can surpass Andy Murray and regain the world No. 1 ranking by reaching the Rogers Cup semifinals. The 55th-ranked Coric has won two of three meetings with the 10-time Roland Garros champion.