American Bradley Klahn is on the way back. The former world no.63 is playing in the Tallahassee Challenger this week. After nearly two years away from the game after undergoing back surgery at the beginning of 2015 Klahn returned at the 2016 Champaign Challenger. He reached the quarter-finals in that tournament.
2017 seems to be a period of careful progression for the American. He attempted to qualify for the Australian Open, going down respectably by taking a set from Thomas Fabbiano in the first round. He reached the final of a futures event in Calabasas, and earned a retirement win from Renzo Olivo in Houston Qualifying before losing to Noah Rubin in three close sets.
This week Klahn has a chance to make a huge impact on his ranking. Currently at N0.600 Klahn looks set to move at least 100 places after this week’s event in Tallahassee. He has reached the quarter-finals, taking down the eighth seed Maximo Gonzalez in the first round before beating qualifier Dominik Koepfer in the second 7-5, 6-1. He faces another qualifier in the form of Andrea Arnaboldi in the quarters. Arnaboldi has defeated the likes of Jose Hernandez-Fernandez and Christian Harrison to reach this stage.
Klahn is the only surviving American in the top half of the draw, as the second quarter-final sees fourth seed Guido Andreozzi face Ramkumar Ramanathan. Andreozzi suffered a bagel first set against Frenchman Vincent Millot but won the second, and looked likely to hand Millot his own bagel before the Frenchman retired with a hamstring strain 0-6, 6-4, 4-0 ret.
Three Americans feature in the bottom quarter-finals. Seventh seed Stefan Kozlov looks to have finally got his 2017 season up and running with an excellent win over Jurgen Melzer 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. K0zlov faces Mitchell Krueger a fellow American at a career-high ranking of No.180. Krueger defeated third seed Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-2 for his quarter-final berth. The final section sees qualifier Blaz Rola take on Dennis Novikov. Both are unseeded, with Rola having taken out former Top 30 player Leonardo Mayer 6-2, 6-4 in the second round. Novikov defeated John-Patrick Smith in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
The four Americans left in the draw have a lot to play for. The American who performs best at any clay event through most of April and the first week of May and does not have a singles ranking high enough for the French Open, will receive a main draw wildcard. Last week’s Sarasota winner Frances Tiafoe is unlikely to need the wildcard as he holds a singles ranking well established in the Top 100. If one of the four Americans could win this week’s title, that player would put themselves in pole position for the wildcard.
