Atlanta resident Donald Young didn't last long in the main draw of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
On Monday, Young lost to fellow American Michael Russell 6-0, 6-3 in a match that lasted an hour and 13 minutes at the Racquet Club of the South in Norcross.
Young, whose family owns the South Fulton Tennis Center in College Park, was a wild card entry. He turns 22 on Saturday.
Russell, 33, has yet to win an ATP World Tour title, but reached the quarterfinals in last year’s ATC.
While Russell and Young were battling in the late afternoon on the stadium court, American Alex Bogomolov Jr. faced Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller on a nearby court, with the latter advancing. Muller beat Bogomolov 6-3, 7-6 (6).
In a night match, James Blake faced Latvia’s Ernest Gulbis on the stadium court and the pair went to three sets in a late match. They split the first sets, with Gulbis winning 7-5 and losing 6-7 (5). After a weather delay, Blake won the third set, 6-2, clinching the match win.
"I've sort of seen it all at this point," Blake said of the rain delay. "I've been in a situation where I've been up going into a rain delay, and I've been in a situation where I've been down."
He continued, "I think it generally favors the person that is down because they've got the chance to stop the momentum and get back out there with a new attitude. I wanted to squash that quickly."
Blake, a seasoned veteran, entered with 10 ATP World Tour titles, while Gulbis had just one. Blake currently holds the No. 91 ATP world ranking, but has been as high as No. 4.
"I probably saved six to eight break points tonight with winners, with just cold winners that I'm not going to go for if I don't have the confidence that I feel like I'm hitting it well," Blake said. "It makes a huge difference."
In an evenly played match, India’s Somdev Devvarman ousted American Ryan Sweeting 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. There's little difference between the two in the world rankings: Sweeting holds the No. 66 spot while Devvarman is 68th.
In the third match on Court 2, Tatsuma Ito of Japan beat Germany’s Michael Berrer 7-6 (6), 6-4. Berrer currently holds the No. 84 world ranking.
Four qualifying matches were held Monday prior to the start of main draw play. American Rajeev Ram defeated Australia’s Matthew Ebden 7-6 (4), 6-3; Phillip Simmonds beat fellow American Tim Smyczek 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2; Japan’s Yuichi Sugita defeated Haiti’s Olivier Sajous 6-2, 6-3, and Australian Marinko Matosevic topped American Denis Kudla 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (3).
