Tom Fawcett may only have ranking of No.1228 in the world, but that hasn’t stopped him causing one of the shocks of the season on the Challenger circuit.
The American wildcard faced top seed Ruben Bemelmans in the first round of the Tiburon Challenger. Yet Fawcett came from behind to secure the biggest win of his career over the former Davis Cup finalist 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Fawcett will next face Canada’s Frank Dancevic. The veteran is in this tournament as a special exemption after reaching the semi-finals in Columbus last week. He defeated Alexander Sarkissian in the first round 7-6, 6-4.
It was a good day if you were a lowly ranked American playing a seed, as No.708 Deiton Baughman also secured a big win. He defeated 7th seed and highly-touted youngster Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-2. Baughman will play Prajnesh Gunneswaran in the second round. The Indian defeated qualifier Evan King 6-2, 6-4.
Britain’s Cameron Norrie is on a roll at the moment. He has reached the finals of three Challengers (all in the US), winning in Binghampton. Norrie got his campaign to win in Tiburon underway by grinding out a tough 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 win over Swedish youngster Elias Ymer. Mitchell Krueger defeated Sam Groth 6-4, 7-5 and will be Norrie’s next opponent.
Michael Mmoh might well be the biggest winner after Fawcett. The young American is now the highest ranked player in the top half after Bemelmans early exit. He thrashed fellow American Noah Rubin 6-1, 6-2 and looks to have a good path to the final.
Denis Kudla’s match with Tim Smyczek is another intriguing first round encounter between two former Top 100 players. Britain’s Alexander Ward has been granted a main draw berth with a special exemption after his run to the Columbus final. He faces Alejandro Gonzalez. 2nd seed Tennys Sandgren and 3rd seed Quentin Halys are also yet to play their respective first round matches.
Jan Choinski and Christian Harrison were also early winners in the California event.
