Three Ventura County Players Move Into Quarterfinals

CALABASAS, Calif., (March 20, 2014) – Three players from Ventura County advanced to the Elite 8 in singles play on Thursday at the USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas, a USTA $15,000 Pro Circuit Futures event being played at the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center.

 

Two of the three grew up in Thousand Oaks, just 15 miles north of Calabasas down the U.S. 101 and will meet in the featured match on Friday night not before 8 p.m. as UCLA junior Marcos Giron takes on former Washington University standout Kyle McMorrow.

 

In the second match scheduled for Stadium Court following the first at 11 a.m., it will be Oxnard’s Daniel Nguyen taking on former Duke All-American Henrique Cunha in a rematch of a NCAA matchup two seasons ago in which Cunha beat Nguyen.

 

In his second-round match on Thursday, Nguyen dominated Ryan Agar of Australia in their first meeting, 6-4, 6-0. ““He was a crafty player,” the four-time NCAA team champion from USC Nguyen said. “He has kind of an unorthodox game. It was tough today. I was just lucky to pull it out.”

 

While Cunha needed a third-set tiebreaker to beat U.S. Boys’ 18s National Kalamazoo champion Collin Altamirano in his match, Nguyen was excited about the fact that he has won both his matches in straight sets. “There’s always room to improve,” he said. “But I’m happy to pull it out in two sets.”

 

Last year at this event, Nguyen had match points in the last round of qualies losing to Mitchell Krueger in three tough sets. “I was kind of bummed right after but you move forward,” he said. “You have so many more matches to play you kind of have to.”

 

On Thursday, Giron took care of Krueger, 7-5, 6-3, in front of his college coach Billy Martin, while the qualifier McMorrow outlasted 16-year-old U.S. junior Stefan Kozlov, 6-4, 6-4.

 

Last spring in his final season for the Huskies, McMorrow lost in the NCAA Individuals to Duke’s Cunha in the Round of 16 and in the process became the eighth All-American in program history. McMorrow finished the season with a 25-7 record and 100-35 for his career. He became just the fifth Husky to reach 100 wins for his career.

 

 

EVENTS: The Adult Pro-Am drill is Friday, March 21, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Community Tennis Association & USTA League appreciation night is Friday, March 21st starting at 6 p.m. A USTA Junior Team Tennis Kid’s Day with a Tennis Carnival is Saturday, March 22 from 4 p.m. till 5:30 p.m., and a VIP sponsor dinner reception is Saturday, March 22, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Kaley Cuoco & Friends Exhibition is Saturday evening before the singles semifinals.

 

Thursday’s Singles Scores

WC: wild card; Q: qualifier

Henrique Cunha, Brazil, def. Collin Altamirano, U.S., 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4)

Mate Pavic, Croatia (6), def. Evan Song, U.S. (q), 6-4, 6-2

Gianni Mina, France, def. Roberto Marcora, Italy (4), 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3

Kyle McMorrow, U.S. (q), def. Stefan Kozlov, U.S., 6-4, 6-4

Daniel Nguyen, U.S., def. Ryan Agar, Australia, 6-4, 6-0

Taylor Fritz, U.S. (wc), def. Evan King, U.S., 6-3, 6-3

Jason Jung, U.S. (3), def. Sekou Bangoura, U.S. (q), 6-3, 6-4

Marcos Giron, U.S., def. Mitchell Krueger, U.S., 7-5, 6-3

Thursday’s Doubles Scores

Dennis Novikov/Connor Smith, U.S., def. Ryan Agar, Australia/Erik Elliott, U.S. (2), 6-2, 6-1

Sekou Bangoura/Evan King, U.S. (1), def. Collin Altamirano/Taylor Fritz, U.S., 6-4, 7-6 (5)

Fabian Matthews/Kyle McMorrow, U.S. (4) def. Stefan Kozlov/Mitchell Krueger, U.S., walkover