Black Tennis Pros

Felix Auger-Aliassime through to 2nd round at the 2019 Brasil Open

(ATP Tour) #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime is here to stay. The 18-year-old knocked out a seed in his opening-round match for the second week in a row on Wednesday, beating fifth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo.

Auger-Aliassime beat Cuevas on Saturday in the Rio Open presented by Claro semi-finals to make his maiden ATP Tour final (l. to Djere). That run propelled him into the Top 100 and to where he sits today, at a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 60.

“It's definitely my breakthrough of my career,” Auger-Aliassime said of his time in the South American country. “As a young guy, it's a big moment whenever you crack the Top 100, and now with the [crowd] support that I'm getting obviously I'm enjoying it more and more, and hopefully I can go far again this week.”

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American Frances Tiafoe's short run in Acapulco at the 2019 Abierto Mexicano Telcel was ended today in the second round by fellow American Mckenzie McDonald, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-3.

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ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia beat top-seeded Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday in the Mexican Open for her first victory in seven career matches against players ranked in the top 10.

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La Monf catching fire 🔥@Gael_Monfils d. Baghdatis 6-3 6-2 for a seventh win in a row, cruising into a third quarter-final of 2019 🙌 pic.twitter.com/5EVkyX2S0p

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 27, 2019

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Donald Young, Jr. In 2019 Oracle Challenger Series

 (Oracle Challenger Series) In a three-set tiebreak victory over World No. 267 Thai-Son Kwiatowski, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4), World No. 214 Donald Young kepts his wild card hopes very much alive. By securing a second round appearance at Oracle Challenger Series Indian Wells, Young is guaranteed at least 5 ranking points which, when added to his current total of 70, places him even with fellow Americans Roy Smith and Reilly Opelka, neither of whom are playing the Indian Wells event.

A seasoned player who has spent 15 years on the ATP Tour, Young, who was once ranked as high as World No. 38, is no stranger to the BNP Paribas Open and hopes to capitalize on Oracle’s unique tournament format to earn himself a wild card.

Up next for Young is number 10 seed and World No. 122, Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland.

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American Taylor Townsend

(Oracle Challenger Series) In a highly-anticipated WTA matchup vital to determining who will earn the wild cards into the main draw of the 2019 BNP Paribas Open, No. 9 seed Taylor Townsend took on fellow American Sachia Vickery on day two of play in Indian Wells. It was Townsend who came out on top, besting Vickery in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 in a match that took just over an hour to play.

Townsend is coming off of a strong performance at the Oracle Challenger Series Newport Beach just last month, where she reached the quarterfinals in singles and was a doubles finalist alongside partner Yanina Wickmayer.

Holding 29 points on the Road to Indian Wells Leaderboard coming into the week, she will give herself a chance to earn one of the wild cards into the 2019 BNP Paribas Open if she can have her best Oracle Challenger Series performance yet.

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Sloane Stephens participating in the 2019 Abierto Mexicano Telcel Kick Off

2016 event champion and No. 1 seed Sloane Stephens wasted very little time in accomplishing today's goal of shutting down Pauline Parmentier of France.  In one hour and nine minutes, Sloane moved into the next round with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

In the post match interview, Sloane stated,“I felt good out there. Obviously I like coming back here and playing here. I’m happy to get that first win under my belt after having not played since Australia.

“I’m happy to be playing well and happier to have another chance to get back out on the court.”

Up next, Brazilian qualifier Beatriz Haddad Maia.

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Once again, as Sloane Stephens took the court in Acapulco today, Tennis Channel commentators have found it necessary to throw American Sloane Stephens and Australian Nick Kyrgios into a boxed comparison. This is no less than the third occasion that I have heard male commentators on Tennis Channel utilize this 'lil idiom.

With no offense to Nick Kyrgios, if it were being done for the positive, it would be a different story. However, the moment you all make the comparison, you begin running down the issues that you have with Nick Kyrgios and his game. With all the negatives that have been assigned to Kyrgios, to now constantly attribute this same opinion to Sloane Stephens may be interpreted more broadly.

The issues and opinions that you have with Sloane and her game need to be limited to Sloane. Unless there's some new rule establishing grouping players deemed to have like "issues," cut the wack opining.

Oh, and FYI - Wack: not up to the mark : lousy, lame.

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