Brooksby Digs Deep To Advance In Seoul

Jenson Brooksby’s resolve was given an early test at the Eugene Korea Open Tennis Championships on Tuesday, but the eighth seed dug deep before accelerating away from qualifier Wu Tung-Lin to seal a 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-0 first-round victory at the ATP 250 event in Seoul.

Wu exerted plenty of pressure on Brooksby’s serve in the two-hour, 20-minute encounter, but the American found a way to save nine of the 11 break points he faced against the World No. 212. Brooksby fended off three set points at 5-6 before going on to take the first-set tie-break, but Wu levelled the match with two second-set breaks of serve as the 24-year-old from Chinese Taipei showed no sign of nerves in his first match against a Top 50 opponent.

Rise-n-Grind 🔥

Jenson Brooksby pulling out all the stops to finally break Wu in Seoul. #KoreaOpen pic.twitter.com/wzWC38Oiuh

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) September 27, 2022

Brooksby, who reached ATP Tour finals this year in Dallas and Atlanta, reacted to that setback in style, delivering a clinical deciding-set showing to book a second-round meeting against Soonwoo Kwon. The top-ranked South Korean in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Kwon overcame his countryman Yunseong Chung 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-1 in the final match of the day at the outdoor hard-court tournament.

Also on Tuesday, Yoshihito Nishioka maintained his unbeaten record against Daniel Evans with a 6-2, 7-6(3) triumph against the fifth-seed. The Japanese World No. 56 carved out 14 break point chances against Evans, converting four of them to complete a one-hour, 49-minute victory and extend his ATP Head2Head series lead against the Briton to 6-0. Nishioka will take on countryman Taro Daniel or Emilio Gomez in the second round.

Mackenzie McDonald and Steve Johnson joined their countryman Brooksby in the second round in Seoul with straight-sets victories on Tuesday. The World No. 82 McDonald downed Pedro Martinez 7-5, 6-4 to set a meeting against third seed Taylor Fritz, while four-time tour-level titlist Johnson proved too strong for home wild card JiSung Nam. Johnson prevailed 7-6(3), 6-4 against the South Korean and will next face Radu Albot.

Nicolas Jarry will be top seed Casper Ruud’s second-round opponent in Seoul, after the Chilean qualifier prevailed 6-3, 7-6(8) against Ryan Peniston in his opening match. #NextGenATP star Chun-Hsin Tseng also advanced Tuesday in the South Korean capital after his opponent Christopher O’Connell was forced to retire from the pair’s first-round clash with Tseng having taken the first set 6-4.