It was a long day’s journey into Wednesday night during the first round of the Greenview Development & Majestic Realty Men’s Pro Tennis Open. The matches at the Texas Tennis Center started at 10 a.m. and ended in darkness around 7:30 p.m.
Top-seeded Bernard Tomic defeated Philip Henning, 6-3, 6-4, in an early afternoon match. Tomic used his experience as a former top 20 player to win comfortably over his South African opponent. No. 2 Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain (pictured above) defeated Maciej Rajski, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in what was essentially a night match. Jones surrendered leads in both sets before prevailing.
Third-seeded Alexander Cozbinov of Moldova was a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Zsombor Velcz, 6-2, 6-1, and sixth-seeded Andres Andrade of Ecuador breezed past Noah Schachter, 6-1, 6-3.
Fifth-seeded Colin Markes, the former Longhorn star, defeated Gabriel Evans 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-1. “I think I started pretty slow,” Markes said, “but the second and third set I picked things up, and it was good consistency for me.”
Micah Braswell, a UT junior, scored the round’s biggest upset, defeating No. 4 Roberto Cid Subervi of the Dominican Republic, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0. Texas junior Siem Woldeab overcame leg cramping to defeat a visibly frustrated Hamish Stewart, 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-2. Christian Sigsgaard of Denmark, the former Longhorn, was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over No. 7 Johannes Ingildsen, a fellow Dane.
Eric Hadigian, a senior at Pepperdine, rallied past No. 8 Gabi Adrian Boitan of Romania, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. TCU freshman Sebastian Gorzny also came back against Jamaican John Chin, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1. Martin Breysach of France held off the qualifier Pranav Kumar 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-4. Breysach, a freshman at Baylor, kept his composure in what was the tightest of the round’s three-set matches.
Darian King defeated Rahul Dhokia, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-1, as the 30-year-old once ranked near the top 100 used his experience to close out the match against the Texas A&M junior.
Texas Tech senior Demetris Azoides was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Marko Mesarovic, a local high schooler and state champion. Tadeas Paroulek, a junior at Baylor, defeated Kareem Al Allaf, 7-5, 6-3. Alex Kuperstein scored a 6-4, 6-3 win over Tyler Stewart, a Texas Tech player who received a wild card into the main draw, while Lucas Renard beat Ryan Dickerson, 6-2, 6-3.
By Ignacio Perez, Aaron Sullivan and Lindsey Plotkin / Photo by Kayla Thompson