Taylor Fritz and Miomir Kecmanovic made quick work of the night session at the BB&T Atlanta Open on Thursday, picking up respective second-round victories over Kevin King and Ugo Humbert. Fritz took care of King 6-2, 6-3 before Kecmanovic won an all-NextGen affair with Humbert 6-2, 6-2.
“This is one of the best tournaments of the year for me,” said King, who upset Grigor Dimitrov in round one after successfully qualifying for the main draw. “Being able to play in front of family and friends, it is just incredible being in my hometown…. I thought there were some things I did well, unfortunately I did not serve as well as I did the rest of the week and against a player like Taylor it is important to be able to hold serve. I wasn’t to serve as well as I would’ve liked.”
King, a local product who starred at Georgia Tech, broke back early in the second set and reached 3-3, but that proved to be his final push.
“I felt like I was able to get some good returns in play start the point well, win a couple of long rallies, and gain a little bit of momentum,” King continued. “At 3-3 I got up (0-15) but he was able to serve out of trouble and come up with some big serves. But that’s what he does; that is what makes him a great player.”
“I just told myself to reset and not worry about it, after he won those games we were back to even,” Fritz explained. “I just needed to get that one break again and get confident again. I tried not to get down on myself.”
Kecmanovic never got down against Humbert, as the 19-year-old Serb broke early and often and never dropped his own serve. He saved the only break point he faced and converted four of his seven chances. Kecmanovic will face Fritz in the quarterfinals on Friday night.
They are joined in the last eight by Aussies Alex de Minaur and Bernard Tomic. De Minaur downed Bradley Klahn, while Tomic defeated countryman Matthew Ebden 6-4, 7-6(3).
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Kec looks like the real deal