Garin, Isner advance at U.S. Clay Court Championships

Photo by Darla Tamulitis
La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2022
All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (April 8, 2022) Friday action at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship saw four quarterfinal singles and two semifinal doubles matches at Houston's River Oaks Country Club.

Kicking off the day was the first doubles match, on Court 3, found Serbians Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov facing Americans William Blumberg and Max Schnur. After a very intense, which propelled the winners to the final on Saturday evening, the duo from Serbia were victorious by the score of 6-3, 7-5.

In singles action, American and No. 3 seed Reilly Opeika needed only 78 minutes to down Gijs Brouwer (Netherlands) by the score of 6-3, 7-5. Next up was a scheduled match between Michael Mmoh (USA) and Nick Kyrgios (Australia). Kyrgios advanced to semi-final, where he will face Opeika, as a result of a walkover, when Mmoh withdrew from the tournament due to an injury. Saturday's semifinal will be the first for Opeika at River Oaks.

In the third match of the day, which lasted two hours, 43 minutes, Chile's Cristian Garin needed three sets to dispatch American Taylor Fitz by the score of 6-2, 6(5)-7, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals, Garin will take on John Isner (USA, shown above), who needed three sets to advance to the semifinals, in defeating  fellow American Frances Tiafoe 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

In the final match of the evening, Australians Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell  defeated Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) and Hunter Reese (USA) 6-4, 6-3.