EDWARDSVILLE - Great Britain's Paul Jubb became the first-ever singles top seed to advance to the quarterfinals with a win, while Australian Rinky Hijikata moved through to the semifinals due to injury in the fourth day of the 10th Anniversary Edwardsville Futures tennis tournament presented by The EGHM Foundation on a hot Thursday afternoon at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
Jubb became the first top seed to go through to the last eight with a win over South Africa's Siphosothando Montsi 2-6, 6-3, 3-1 when Montsi was forced to retire due to injury, while Hijikata won his Round of 16 match over Olivier Stuart pf France 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreak), 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreak) to move to the quarterfinals, then advanced to the semifinals when his scheduled opponent, Blaise Bicknell of Jamaica, was forced to withdraw after an injury he suffered in his 6-7 (4-7 in the tiebreak), 7-6 (11-9 in the tiebreak), 6-2 win over Bruno Kuzuhara of the United States. Hiijikata will advance to the semis officially in a walkover over Bicknell.
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In all of the results in the singles Round of 16, sixth seed Christian Langmo of the United States won over Japan's Kento Takeuchi 7-5, 6-1, third seed Strong Kirchheimer of the United States won by walkover over Victor Lilov, also of the United States, Bicknell won over Kuzuhara before being forced to withdraw and American Elliot Spizziri defeated Igor Marcondes of Brazil 7-6 (8-6 in the tiebreak), 7-6 (again 8-6 in the tiebreak).
In the other half of the draw, top seed Jubb won over Montsi, Hijikata defeated Stuart, Cameron Kingsley of the United States pulled off a big upset of second seed Felix Corwin of the United States 6-2, 6-2 and in another match between two Americans, William Griffith defeated seventh-seeded Dusty Boyer 4-6, 7-6 (8-6 in the tiebreak), 6-1.
In the doubles quarterfinals, Montsi and Nic Meister of the United States won over top-seeded Marcondes and Evan Zhu of the United States 6-4, 6-4, Kuzuhara and Langmo advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Kingsley and fellow American Kyle Seelig, the third-seeded Australian team of Tristan Schoolkate and Dane Sweeny defeated Zeke Clark and Alexander Brown of the United States 6-0, 6-3 and second seeded Nathan Ponwith and Reese Stalder of the United States won over the American team of Chad Kissell and Alexander Richards 6-0, 6-2.
Friday's play starts at 9 a.m. with the singles quarterfinals, with the two matches being Jubb vs. Langmo and Griffith vs. Kingsley. The other remaining singles quarterfinal goes off at 11 a.m. with Kirchheimer meeting Spizziri. The doubles semifinals will start at approximately 12 noon, with Montsi and Meister going against Kuzuhara and Langmo, and Schoolkate and Sweeny meeting up with Stalder and Ponwith, with berths in Saturday's final up for grabs.
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