Day 4 of the 2012 Farmers Classic featured some high quality matches in both singles and doubles.
Tobias Kamke and Marinko Matosevic faced off in the Farmers Classic grandstand stadium. Kamke and Matosevic had never met prior to their 2012 Farmers Classic meeting. Matosevic, the higher ranked of the two, showed the power and consistency of a top 100 ATP tour player. Matosevic started off strong, though he had trouble finding his tennis in the second set, where Kamke gained some momentum and capitalized on Matosevics’ brain fart to take the second set 6-1. Kamke could not follow up with the bread-stick second set, he must have given it his all and ran out of gas, losing the set and the match with a bagel.
Fifth seed, Xavier Malisse had an easy match against young Australian Matthew Ebden. The two fought it out under the warm Southern California sunshine for just over an hour. Malisse, coming off a solid victory over American Nicolas Meister, used his powerful forehand to keep the young Aussie on his heels, never letting him find his groove. The Dutchman, bombed 8 aces and allowed only 1 break point, though Ebden was unable to convert his window of opportunity. Malisse ended Ebden’s 2012 Farmers Classic run 6-4, 6-3.
Fourth seed, Nicolas Mahut has a more challenging day at the office when he
faced Italian, Paolo Lorenzi. Mahut rarely gave Lorenzi an opportunity to get close to converting the 3 break chances he had. Mahut converted a break point in the first set, to take the lead 7-5. Lorenzi gave Mahut a hard fought second set, pushing each other to a tiebreaker. The tie breaker did not start off well for the Frenchman, finding himself an early minibreak down on his first service point of the breaker. Mahut showed some calm nerves in the breaker and fought his way back with a minibreak up. Mahut closed out the match 9-7 in the second set tiebreaker.
The real story of day 4 of the 2012 Farmers Classic came from the tennis racquet of tour veteran Michael Russell. The American was matched up against number one seed, Benoit Paire. Russell played a very solid and confident tennis match. The American worked the Frenchman all over the tennis court, moving him side to side. It looked as though Russell should have had the #1 seed during his match. Paire seemed a little too confident of his seeding, getting upset with line calls, his equipment, and even the helicopters flying into nearby UCLA’s hospital helipad. Russell and Paire exchanged breaks midway through the first set, with the American finally able to consolidate a break to take the set 7-5. In the second, Russell was in complete control. The decade older player, Russell made smooth sailing of the second, taking out the top seed 6-4. Old guys rule, right?
More Americans had some luck on the doubles side of the tournament. Stevie Johnson and Sam Querrey paired up to have a go at the doubles. The duo played a very impressive doubles match against Ebden and Dominic Inglot. It looked like everything was going their way, finishing off the fourth seeds 6-2, 6-2.
Day 5 of the 2012 Farmers Classic will feature:
(4) Nicolas Mahut vs. Ricardas Berankis
Rajeev Ram vs. (3) Leonardo Mayer
Michael Russell vs. (6) Marinko Matosevic
(5) Xavier Malisse vs. (2) Sam Querrey
Doubles, Quarterfinals:
Steve Johnson/Sam Querrey vs. Raven Klaaasen/Adil Shamasdin
Rajeev Ram/Michael Russell vs. (3) Jamie Delgado/Ken Skupski