Brooksby, 17, upsets veteran in $100K Tiburon qualifying

Jenson Brooksby practices at the Arden Hills Club
& Spa in Sacramento in May. Three months later,
he won the USTA boys 18 national title to earn a
wild card into the men's main draw of the U.S. Open.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Jenson Brooksby, a 17-year-old wild card from Carmichael in the Sacramento area, defeated Joao Souza, a former top-70 player from Brazil, 7-5, 6-1 today in the first round of qualifying for the $100,000 Wells Fargo Tiburon Challenger at the Tiburon Peninsula Club in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   Brooksby won the USTA boys 18 national title in Kalamazoo, Mich., last month to earn an automatic wild card in the men's main draw of the recent U.S. Open and lost to John Millman of Australia 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in the first round. Millman later stunned Roger Federer in the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the quarterfinals, and Brooksby reached the boys semifinals.
   The 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Souza, 30, has plunged from a career-high No. 69 in 2015 to No. 410. He played in the longest singles match in Davis Cup history in 2015, losing to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 5-7, 5-7, 15-13 in 6 hours, 42 minutes.
   Brooksby will face second-seeded Cem Ilkel of Turkey on Sunday not before 1 p.m. on Court 1. The 23-year-old Ilkel, ranked No. 243, beat Sebastian Korda, 18, of Bradenton, Fla., 7-6 (3), 6-2.
   Korda, 6-foot-4 (1.93 meters) and only 165 pounds (75 kilograms), is ranked third in the world among juniors. He won the Australian Open boys title in January, 20 years after his Czech father, Petr, captured the men's title in Melbourne.
   Brooksby was the only one of the six wild cards in qualifying to win today. Top-seeded Liam Broady of Great Britain outplayed Florian Lakat, a 23-year-old former Cal star from France, 6-4, 6-4.
   Broady, a 24-year-old left-hander, reached the final of last year's $100,000 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger as a qualifier and advanced to the quarterfinals in Aptos, 98 miles (158 kilometers) south of Tiburon, last month. Lakat won last year's Tiburon doubles title with ex-Cal teammate Andre Goransson of Sweden.
   Fourth-seeded Jan Choinski of Germany dominated Ryder Jackson of Nicasio 6-0, 6-3 in 58 minutes, and Alejandro Gomez of Colombia overwhelmed Stevie Gould of Corte Madera 6-0, 6-1 in 48 minutes. Tiburon, Nicasio and Corte Madera are located across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
   Brooksby, Jackson and Gould are high school seniors who have verbally committed to universities. Brooksby is headed to Texas Christian, Jackson to USC and Gould to Washington.
   Alexander Sarkissian, 28, of Glendale in the Los Angeles area held off 2012 Wimbledon doubles champion Frederik Nielsen, 35, of Denmark 6-4, 7-5. 
   Sarkissian advanced to the 2014 NCAA final as a Pepperdine senior, losing to Marcos Giron of UCLA. Giron, from Thousand Oaks in the Los Angeles region, defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler, a 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) left-hander from Switzerland, 6-2, 7-6 (1) today.
   Third-seeded Mitchell Krueger, 24, of Orlando, Fla., beat Laurent Lokoli of France 7-6 (2), 6-1. Krueger, a Tiburon quarterfinalist in 2015 and 2016, qualified for a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 13 attempts in this year's U.S. Open and lost to Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain in the opening round.
   Lokoli made news in last year's French Open by refusing to shake Martin Klizan's hand after losing to the Slovakian 6-4 in the fifth set in the first round. Klizan had celebrated and pointed to his head after a double fault by Lokoli. Lokoli also accused Klizan of faking a leg injury.
   Here are the Tiburon singles qualifying draw and Sunday's schedule.