Sam Riffice, who grew up in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, defeated Thiago Augustin Tirante of Argentina 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1 today in the first round of boys singles at the French Open in Paris.
Riffice, 18, is scheduled to face 12th-seeded Jurij Rodionov of Austria on Monday. Rodionov beat Nikolay Vylegzhanin of Russia 6-4, 6-2.
Later Monday, Riffice and Gianni Ross of Orlando, Fla., are set to meet third-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Alexei Popyrin of Australia in the opening round of boys doubles.
Riffice, now based at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, verbally committed to the University of Florida. He reached the final of $15,000 Futures tournaments on clay in Vero Beach, Fla., in April and Bucharest, Romania, last month to climb to No. 806 in the world.
In 2014, Riffice joined Grigor Dimitrov as the only players to sweep the boys 16 titles in the Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., and the Orange Bowl in Plantation, Fla.
Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.
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