EDWARDSVILLE – St. Louisan and Indiana University player Carson Haskins, who recently won the Pro Wildcard Challenge, along with Gianni Ross, qualified for the main singles’ draw, while Sunday Doubles Shootout winners McClain Kessler and Preston Touliatos won their opening doubles match on day two of the $25,000 Edwardsville Futures Presented By the EGHM Foundation tennis tournament on Tuesday at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
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For the second straight day, Haskins went the distance as he defeated ninth-seeded Andrew Fenty 4-6, 6-1, 10-5 to advance to the main draw, while Ross, who plays at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, fought off a second set hip injury to eliminate fourth seed George Goldhoff 7-6 (7-3 in the first set tiebreak), 1-6, 10-3, using a strong forehand game to win the match and also advance to the main draw.
The main draw of the doubles began on Tuesday, and Kessler and Touliatos wasted no time in pulling an upset, turning back fourth seed Alexander Cozbinov of Moldova and American Austin Rapp 5-7, 6-4, 10-5. Haskins and his doubles partner, Bradley Frye, had an upset bid going, but were eventually defeated by the top-seeded team of Sekou Bangoura and Anderson Reed 3-6, 6-3, 10-5.
A total of eight players advanced from the qualifying rounds into the main draw on Tuesday. Top seed Errol Smith won over A.trice Pickens 6-4. 4-6, 10-8, JanMagnus Johnson won over Frye 6-3, 6-4, it was number three seed Alexander Lebedev over Abraham Asaba of Ghana 6-1, 6-3, and Ross winning over Goldhoff to go through to the main draw.
In the four other singles qualifiers, Alexander Klintcharov of New Zealand won over Jonathan Sorbo of Canada 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 6-3, Joshua Howard-Tripp of South Africa eliminating Jason Kros 6-3, 6-2, Alfredo Perez eliminated Pro Wildcard Challenge runner-up Jason Kerst 6-1, 6-1, and Haskins winning over Fenty.
In the first round of the doubles, it was Bangoura and Reed defeating Frye and Haskins, Goldhoff and Perez eliminated Connor Ferren of the United States and Brandon Walkin of Australia 6-4, 6-4, Kessler and Touliatos winning over Cozbinov and Rapp, and Asaba and Charlie Ernhardt of the United States defeating Strong Kirchheimer and Lebedev 7-6 (7-2 in the tiebreak), 6-2.
In the bottom half of the doubles draw, it was Felix Corwin and Nicolas Moreno De Alboran winning over Ezekiel Clark and Gui Gomes 6-2, 6-3, the third-seeded team of Luis Patino of Mexico and James Trotter of Japan eliminated Eric Morris and Eric Sock 6-2, 6-2, Liam Caruana of Italy and Nathan Ponwith of the United States won over Jacob Dunbar and Johnson 7-6 (12-10 in the tiebreak), 3-6, 10-6, and second seeded Ian Dempster and Korey Lovett won over Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus and Michall Pervolarakis of Greece 6-3, 6-4.
The first round of the main draw will the focus of day three on Wednesday, with all 32 qualifiers set to play in their openers. Play begins at 9:30 a.m, with the feature matches being fourth-seeded Bangoura meeting Hady Habib of Lebanon, top-seeded Ryan Shane going up against Jacob Dunbar, Rapp meeting up with third seed Ulises Blanch, Haskins going up against 2015 Futures champion Alan Kohen of Argentina, and second seed Kevin King meeting up with James Kent Trotter. Play will be continuous all day at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
Chris Rhodes also contributed to this story.
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