Two young U.S. players earned upset victories on Tuesday in the second round of the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
Omni Kumar of the United States, a day after registering his first career main-draw ATP Tour win, defeated No. 8 Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-5.
American teen Alex Michelsen continued his hot streak, upsetting 15th-seeded Austrian Sebastian Ofner 7-6 (4), 7-5
Kumar, 21, had never even won on the second-tier Challenger circuit before reaching the Winston-Salem main draw as a lucky loser. He got past France’s Arthur Rinderknech on Monday.
Michelsen, a Southern California native who is three days shy of his 19th birthday, got to the final of the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, R.I., late last month. He is currently ranked 133rd in the world, while Ofner is ranked 59th.
Up next for Michelsen is a third-round matchup with Serbia’s Laslo Djere, the tournament’s fourth seed, who downed Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta 6-3, 6-3.
All of the top five seeds earned victories on Tuesday. No. 1 Borna Coric of Croatia topped Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-2, 7-6 (2). No. 2 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands moved on when Great Britain’s Jack Draper retired after losing the first set 7-6 (8). No. 3 Sebastian Korda of the United States routed France’s Benjamin Bonzi 6-2, 6-3, and No. 5 Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic stopped U.S. qualifier Mitchell Krueger 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Other Tuesday winners included No. 9 Aleksandar Vukic and Max Purcell of Australia, Juan Manuel Cerundolo of Argentina and Dominik Koepfer of Germany.
In night action, Michael Mmoh crushed No. 13 Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4 in an all-U.S. matchup.
–Field Level Media
