Collin Altamirano (USA) unleashes a serve at the $25k Legends Long Beach.
If the funky, rain-delayed schedule at the $25k Legends Long Beach USTA Pro Circuit was taxing on the athletes at El Dorado Park Tennis Center, it hardly showed on the court. Some of the most lively tennis of the past two weeks was played this afternoon, and while seeded players struggled on Wednesday, the remaining cast kept pace going into the long weekend.
Top seed Austin Krajicek (USA), #3 Kaichi Uchida (JPN), #4 Jan Satral (CZE), and #6 JC Aragone (Yorba Linda) all advanced to the quarterfinals with straight set wins. Karue Sell, the winner of both singles and doubles in Los Angeles last week, fell in straight sets to break a 13-match win streak dating back to December. Sell, with his trademark smile, admitted fatigue was a factor in his 7-6(6), 6-1 loss to Daniel Cukierman (ISR), the freshman from USC.
Appropriately, the match of the day took place on stadium court, between qualifier Ronnie Schneider (USA) and Collin Altamirano (USA), two baseliners with as much firepower as anyone in the main draw. The two players – who both made their Grand Slam debuts at the 2013 US Open – displayed spirited tennis, with NorCal’s Altamirano finding control in the first set, 6-3. As the two competitors traded vicious groundstrokes, a crowd gathered to witness the battle unfolding. Schneider held a 4-3 lead in the second set until Altamirano pushed to a 4-4 tie. Still, the two matched power with power, point after lengthy point, until Schneider tallied the second set, 6-4. In the final frame, Altamirano began to tally more of the longer points and pushed a step ahead of his opponent, breaking out to a commanding lead and eventually capturing the 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory.
Altamirano will play TCU’s Alex Rybakov (USA) on Friday. Rybakov defeated UCLA’s Evan Zhu in straight sets to advance.
Friday Highlights
Quarterfinal highlights include Cukierman vs. #3 Uchida, #6 Aragone vs, #4 Satral, and top seed Krajicek vs. Ecuador’s Emilio Gomez, son of 1990 French Open champion Andres Gomez. In additional to quarterfinal play, there will be a wheelchair tennis demo presentation by Wounded Warriors. The event is scheduled for 3pm at El Dorado Tennis and is open to the public.
www.socalprocircuit.com