Qualifier Altamirano gains 75K Winnetka semifinals

Sacramento's Collin Altamirano continued his
surprising run in the $75,000 Winnetka (Ill.)
Challenger. File photo by Paul Bauman

   Qualifier Collin Altamirano of Sacramento beat unseeded Mitchell Krueger of Orlando, Fla., 6-4, 6-4 today in the quarterfinals of the $75,000 A.C. Nielsen Pro Tennis Championship in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Ill.
   Altamirano, 22, had never won a main-draw singles match in a Challenger before this week. He will meet fourth-seeded Jason Jung, a 29-year-old Los Angeles-area native who plays for Taiwan, on Friday.
   Jung, who won the $100,000 San Francisco Challenger in February, topped eighth-seeded Mohamed Safwat of Egypt 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
   In the other semifinal, Dayne Kelly of Australia will face Evgeny Karlovskiy of Russia in a matchup of unseeded players.
   Altamirano turned pro in June 2017 after his junior year at Virginia, forgoing a chance to join Stanford's Paul Goldstein and USC's Steve Johnson as the only men to win four NCAA team titles.
   In 2013, Altamirano became the first unseeded player to win the USTA boys 18 championship.