Altamirano upsets seed again in first round of 25K

Collin Altamirano practices with Ryan
Harrison during Altamirano's hometown
Sacramento Challenger in 2014. Photo
by Paul Bauman

   Wild card Collin Altamirano, a 21-year-old amateur from Sacramento, upset a seed in the first round of a $25,000 professional tournament for the second straight week today.
   Altamirano, a junior at two-time defending NCAA champion Virginia, ousted No. 8 Dennis Nevolo of Gurnee, Ill., 7-6 (5), 6-4 in Long Beach.
   Altamirano, who won the USTA national boys 18 title in 2013, stunned No. 1 Tommy Paul of Boca Raton, Fla., last week in Los Angeles en route to the quarterfinals.
   In 2015, Paul joined John McEnroe (1977) and Bjorn Fratangelo (2011) as the only Americans in the Open Era (since 1968) to win the French Open boys singles title.
   Altamirano has a good chance to reach the quarterfinals again. He will meet wild card Logan Smith, a USC sophomore, in the second round on Thursday. The winner likely will face No. 4 seed and Los Angeles champion Mackenzie McDonald, a San Francisco Bay Area product, in Friday's quarterfinals.
   The 21-year-old McDonald defeated qualifier J.C. Aragone, a Virginia senior from Yorba Linda in the L.A. area, 7-5, 6-2. Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda.
   McDonald will play qualifier Mico Santiago, a 22-year-old American who beat 16-year-old qualifier Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael in the Sacramento area 6-3, 6-4.
   McDonald turned pro last June after sweeping the NCAA singles and doubles titles as a UCLA junior. He became the first man to accomplish the feat since Matias Boeker of Georgia in 2001.
   Altamirano and Brooksby, the USTA national boys 12 champion in 2013, train at the JMG Tennis Academy at the Arden Hills Resort & Spa in Sacramento.