PETE ZIEBRON in PHOENIX
The Arizona Tennis Classic at The Phoenix Country Club Pete Ziebron Images
When the draw for the inaugural Arizona Tennis Classic was released on Sunday it looked like something better than an ATP 250 but not quite an ATP 500 - more like an ATP 375, if such a thing existed. Five ATP top 50 players entered the Main Draw, including world #21 David Goffin, the #1 seed in this ATP Challenger.
Today I arrived on the grounds of the Phoenix Country Club just before 4 PM local time and was able to see one full match and parts of two others. Poland's Kamil Majchrzak defeated Mikael Ymer of Sweden 7-6(3) 6-3 in 89 minutes on Court 2 to advance to the second round. Majchrzak was extremely efficient in break point conversions, winning all four on the day. The twenty year-old Ymer showed flashes of talent in the match but struggled to find his first serve, coming in at just 51% in the match.
Britain's Dan Evans in early round action in Phoenix. Pete Ziebron Images
The next match on Court 2 featured {Alt} Ernesto Escobedo of the United States against Daniel Evans of Great Britain. The opening game took ten minutes before the American finally claimed it. In fact, the Brit looked a bit bewildered at the overall pace of Escobedo's game, particularly his serve. During the match, Escobedo's coach confirmed to me that his serve tops out near 140 MPH. Despite falling behind 1-3. Evans broke at love to get back on serve and then took the opening set 6-4 at exactly 6:00 PM local time. Evans then stated to the umpire that it was too dark to continue and that he "wouldn't even be playing golf in this poor light." The brit got his wish and the match was suspended due to darkness.
Moving to Center Court, Elias Ymer, older brother of Mikael, faced veteran Czech Lukas Rosol. The Swede dazzled the crowd with spectacular shot making and took the opening set 6-3. Next, he was up a break at 3-2 when the heavy rain returned and washed out the remainder of play for the day in Phoenix.
This new ATP 375 tournament, OOPS I mean ATP Challenger, is a nice opportunity for player to get competitive match play following their departure from Indian Wells and prior to Miami.
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