The parade of upsets hit high gear in Memphis on Thursday with three seeds eliminated. Third seed Donald Young was the lone seed to survive the day.
Young Overcomes Sluggish Start
Donald Young looked every bit the rusty player you would expect given that the lefty had not played since the Australian Open. Young was broken in the first game by Marcel Granollers, but struck right back to even the set at 1-1. Granollers would then be enveloped by a black hole on serve as he would only win two points in his next two service games. That would allow the third seeded Young to run off six straight games to stun the Spaniard and take the opener in just 27 minutes.
Granollers nearly kept the streak alive of games lost by letting Young see a break chance in the opening game of the second set. The Spaniard would fight it off as he finally held serve to break the run of consecutive games won by Young. The American would respond with a simple hold to push the set to 1-1. Granollers' success on serve was short-lived as Young broke in the next game, but would give it right back in the fourth to put things back on serve. Both players would steady after that with eight straight service holds to push the set into a tiebreak.
The Spaniard's service issues would continue in the breaker as Young won three of five service points from Granollers to take the breaker 7-2. Young won 47 percent of the points off of Granollers' serve for the match.
Berankis, Becker Craft Upsets
The man who Donald Young will face in the quarterfinals pulled off the first seeded upset of the afternoon. Ricardas Berankis was in control throughout the match against 8th seed Damir Dzumhur. He would win easily 6-3, 6-4. Berankis was broken just once on serve and kept constant pressure on his opponent's serve. Dzumhur faced 11 break points in the match and saved seven.
The second seed to go down on Thursday was Aussie John Millman. The 7th seed had shown well in the opening six weeks of the season. In the second round though, he ran out of steam as Benjamin Becker advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory. Becker won nearly half the points off of the Aussie's serve in the opening set as he broke him twice en route to the quick set win. The second set saw better from Millman, who fought back from a break down to force a tiebreak. Millman would work himself into position to see a set point on serve at 6-5. The 7th seed would then drop three straight points and find himself out of the tournament.
Fritz Finishes Thursday Impressively
The final singles match of the next saw an all-American battle between second seed Steve Johnson and Taylor Fritz. Fritz came out shaky and was broken to open the match as Johnson got a quick foothold on serve and eased his way in front to 2-0. The set would stay on serve until game eight when Fritz found an opening to see his only break point of the set. The 18-year-old would convert and pull even at 4-4. Fritz would have to work hard to send the set into a tiebreak, holding off five break points en route. In the breaker, Fritz would be perfect on serve, winning all six points to take the breaker 7-5.
There was plenty of drama early in the first two games of set two. That is where Johnson fought off three break points to open and then Fritz matched him to stave off a break of serve at 1-1. From there, neither was troubled much on serve as the set rolled on to a second tiebreak. Fritz would blink first to give the second seed a mini-break at 2-1 and Johnson would take a 4-2 lead into the first changeover. From that point, Johnson would lose his last two service points with Fritz rallying to take five of the last eight points to score his best ATP win over the 29th ranked player in the world.
Defending Champs Cap Night Session in Doubles
The defending doubles champions finished off the night with a straight forward 6-3, 6-3 win over Nicholas Monroe and Austin Krajicek. It was Monroe and Krajicek who had stunned the top seed Bryan Brothers earlier in the tournament. This night it was Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez continuing their stranglehold on the Memphis Open. They would fight off the only break point they faced and break Monroe-Krajicek three times. The defending champs are the first team to lock up a semifinal spot and have now won six straight in Memphis.
Quarterfinal Friday
Top seed Kei Nishikori looks to extend his 14 match unbeaten streak in Memphis on Friday. He plays the first match of the night session against Mikhail Kukushkin. The day session starts with Benjamin Becker going up against Taylor Fritz. That is followed by Sam Querrey battling qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka. The other quarterfinal features Donald Young clashing with Ricardas Berankis.