Winston-Salem Open 2015: Wednesday Tennis Scores, Results, Updated Draw Schedule
The 2015 Winston-Salem Open continued Wednesday with eight third-round matches, headlined by big names such as Kevin Anderson and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Anderson fought through two tough sets against 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz to prevail, while Steve Johnson capped off Wednesday's action with an upset win over Tsonga in three sets.
Read on to find out more about their matches, along with what happened in the other third-round showdowns. An updated draw schedule precedes Wednesday's more detailed recap and analysis.
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| Kevin Anderson (2) def. Jerzy Janowicz (16) | 7-6 (2), 6-4 |
| Steve Johnson (13) def. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (3) | 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) |
| Thomaz Bellucci (6) def. Jiri Vesely (11) | 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-4 |
| Borna Coric (8) def. Diego Schwartzman | 6-2, 6-1 |
| Malek Jaziri def. Teymuraz Gabashvili (15) | 7-5, 6-4 |
| Pierre-Hugues Herbert def. Aljaz Bedene | 6-3, 6-0 |
| Yen-Hsun Lu def. Hyeon Chung | 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5 |
| Pablo Carreno Busta def. Simone Bolelli | 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 |
| No. 2 | Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert | Not before 4:30 p.m. |
| Stadium | Steve Johnson (13) vs. Yen-Hsun Lu | Not before 5 p.m. |
| Stadium | Kevin Anderson (2) vs. Borna Coric (8) | Not before 7 p.m. |
| Stadium | Thomaz Bellucci (6) vs. Malek Jaziri | Following Anderson vs. Coric |
Wednesday Recap
After an improbable three-set win over the mercurial Marcos Baghdatis to get to the third round, qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert kept his roll going Wednesday in topping Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-0.
Herbert had a huge edge on serve. Among the 67 percent of first serves he hit in play, the Frenchman hit eight aces. Bedene managed just 48 percent success on opening serves and won just 12 of 22 first-serve points.
As for the Anderson-Janowicz duel, the two powerful, towering players certainly didn't disappoint. Anderson is the more consistent one overall, and it gave him the slightest of edges. He broke Janowicz just once, yet it was enough to complement the 17 aces he smashed to shorten points and retain the upper hand.
Anderson described the strategy that allowed him to achieve the victory, per ATPWorldTour.com:
"I was really pleased with today's performance...It was an improvement from yesterday. I served well today, which was the big goal. I took care of my own service games. When you're playing a big server like Jerzy that's one of the most important aspects. I felt I was patient in my returns. I didn't return the best, but when it counted I made some returns and it was an overall good performance.
"
The talent has always been present for Tsonga to be among tennis' elite, but he hasn't often capitalized on it. That was on display against Johnson as the American claimed the first set 6-3. Greg Sharko of ATPWorldTour.com highlighted Johnson's resolve:
But Tsonga dug deep and rallied, breaking Johnson on his lone opportunity to force a third set. Tsonga then faced a break point on serve at 5-5 before managing to hold.
An untimely double-fault was Tsonga's undoing when he fell to 3-1 behind in the tiebreaker and couldn't recover. Ricky Dimon of TennisTalk.com highlighted another key sequence that befell Tsonga:
Beyond the marquee participants, three other matches went the distance on Wednesday on the courts of Wake Forest University. Rendy Lu topped Hyeon Chung 7-1 in a first-set tiebreaker before managing just one game in the second set. Lu held on at 7-5 in the decider.
A battle of seeded players saw No. 6 Thomaz Bellucci overcome the letdown of losing a second-set tiebreaker and still manage to close out 11th-seeded Jiri Vesely thereafter. Second-serve points were a decisive factor, as Bellucci took 58 percent of his while Vesely won at a 35 percent clip.
In the penultimate fixture to finish, Pablo Carreno Busta traded 6-4 sets with Simone Bolelli before dominating the third set 6-1 as Bolelli's serve left him down the stretch.
Anderson is preparing for his sixth quarterfinal of the 2015 campaign. He's failed to convert any of those opportunities into a singles title, and he has a tough opponent in Borna Coric. The 18-year-old is the No. 8 seed and has beaten the likes of Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray within the past two years.
This could be a breakout tournament for Coric, who dropped just three games to Diego Schwartzman on Wednesday and has proved capable of defeating big stars before.
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