#NextGenATP American Jared Donaldson can count a second Top 20 opponent as his victim in as many weeks after seeing off Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut at the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday. The 20 year old defeated the No. 12 seed 7-6(5), 6-3 to reach the second round for the third straight year.
Ranked No. 60 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Donaldson was coming off an impressive run to the third round at the Coupe Rogers, where he’d beaten Frenchmen, World No. 18 Lucas Pouille and Benoit Paire, back to back. The Spaniard, too, had a solid week in Montreal where he saved a match point against Gael Monfils en route to the quarter-finals, where he went down to Roger Federer.
“I feel that I've been playing really solid tennis. I feel as though a lot of my matches have kind of hinged on my first-serve percentage,” Donaldson said. “I feel that when I get it up above 50 per cent, sometimes 60 per cent, I think the cut off is 50, but I think if I can continue to keep getting it into the high 50s, 60s, maybe even 70s, then I'm going to be really tough to beat.
“I feel like I'm returning really well, playing pretty good defence. But I think a lot of it starts with my serve. If I serve really well I think it's tough to beat me because I can play offence so easily and I can also return pretty well.”
Wild card Donaldson sent down 11 aces and saved four of six break points against the World No. 14. He will next face India’s lucky loser Ramkumar Ramanathan, who ground out a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 result over American qualifier Christopher Eubanks on Monday.
#NextGenATP Russian Karen Khachanov avenged a defeat on U.S. hard courts to Diego Schwartzman from earlier this season. The 21 year old had lost his opening round at the Miami Open to the Argentine but turned the tables to level the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head on Tuesday with a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 result.
Schwartzman was coming off a career-best ATP World Tour Masters 1000 run in Montreal last week, where he saved four match points to upset third seed Dominic Thiem en route to the quarter-finals. Khachanov’s six aces helped him on his way to a second meeting with Italian lucky loser Thomas Fabbiano.
#NextGenATP Croatian Borna Coric didn’t fare so well. The 20 year old fell to Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3, 7-6(5) with the Georgian to next meet U.S. lucky loser Christian Harrison.
