Bratislava: Some shocks here, as two seeds fell. Jan Lennard Struff fell to Marius Copil, in a ranking upset of more than seventy places. Copil won 6-4, 6-3 against the 6’6 German. Radek Stepanek also used his experience to defeat Swedish upstart Elias Ymer in straight sets 6-4, 7-6. Stepanek turned pro in 1996, the same year that Ymer was born. Artem Smirnov def, Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-1, 7-6 in another surprise. Mikhail Youzhny, Peter Gojowczyk, and Illya Marchenko all progressed in straight sets.
Tomorrow look out for Lukas Lacko vs Andrey Rublev.
Mouilleron Le Captif: A distinct lack of seeded shocks, as Benoit Paire, Adrian Mannarino, and Teymuraz Gabashvili all progressed in straight sets. Young Russian Karen Khachanov did produce one, defeating the unseeded Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets , 6-3, 7-6.
Tomorrow look out for Vincent Millot vs Sergiy Stakhovsky: Millot may not exactly be up-and-coming, but he has shown good form in recent weeks and could spring an upset.
Ortisei: Seeds Ricardas Berankis, Mirza Basic, and Andrea Arnaboldi all continued their easy progress wit straight sets wins. Fifth seed Michael Berrer was not so lucky, as he fell 7-5, 2-6, 6-0 to young Serbian Laslo Djere. Djere won at least seventy five percent of his first serve points in each set in the win.
Tomorrow look out for Lorenzo Sonego vs Rajeev Ram: Ram has not played well since winning Newport, and Sonego is a highly-touted youngster from the home nation.
Buenos Aires: Overnight top seed Federico Delbonis was beaten for third time in three mettings against unseeded Gastao Elias. Today, James Ward was unable to take advantage of his side of the draw opening up, soundly beaten 6-3, 6-3 by qualifier Christian Garin. Kyle Edmund continued to play well, defeating Renzo Olivo 6-3, 6-3. Edmund is in pursuit of a Davis Cup Final Singles place behind Andy Murray.
Look out for Kyle Edmund vs Gastao Elias OR Hans Podlipnik-Castillo: Both are tough players on clay, and could be Edmund’s real indicator of where his game is at on clay ahead of the Davis Cup Final.
Kobe: It was an excellent day for seed players in Japan. John Millman defeated young Korean Duckhee Lee 6-1, 6-4, and there were wins for Matthew Ebden, Go Soeda, Konstantin Kravchuk, Yoshihito Nishioka, and Brydan Klein. Tatsumo Ito is the first seed to depart, as he was beaten 7-5, 7-5 by French veteran Stephane Robert.
Look out for Yuichi Ito vs Yoshihito Nishioka: Nishioka looks set to join Kei Nishikori in the Top 100 in the near future.
Knoxville: Taylor Fritz was unable to replicate his stunning form that led to two Challenger wins, as he lost to John-Patrick smith 6-4, 6-4 overnight. Wednesday turned into a good day for other Americans, as Bjorn Fratangelo, Dennis Novikov, and Tennys Sandgren all defeated players from other nations. Sekou Bangoura and Jared Donaldson both won all- American encounters.
Look out for Malek Jaziri vs Stefan Kozlov: That match is still to come tonight, and Jaziri is in poor form.
