American Paul heads field in $108K Tiburon Challenger

Tommy Paul plays fellow U.S. prospect
Michael Mmoh in last year's Tiburon (Calif.)
quarterfinals. Mmoh, who went on to win
the title, called it the highest-quality match
in which he had ever played. Photo by
Paul Bauman 

   Top-seeded Tommy Paul of Greenville, N.C., is scheduled to play either wild card Brandon Holt, the son of International Tennis Hall of Famer Tracy Austin, or Raymond Sarmiento of Los Angeles in the second round of the First Republic Tiburon (Calif.) Challenger.
   All 16 seeds received first-round byes in the $108,320 tournament, which will begin Monday at the Tiburon Peninsula Club in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   The 22-year-old Paul, the only top-100 player in the draw at a career-high No. 88, won his third Challenger singles title, all since last November, three weeks ago in New Haven, Conn.
   Paul, the 2015 French Open boys singles champion, reached the Tiburon quarterfinals last year as a wild card ranked No. 343. He defeated Holt 5-0, retired (shoulder), in the second round before losing to Michael Mmoh, a top U.S. prospect like Paul, 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-3. Mmoh, who went on to win the title, called it the highest-quality match in which he had ever played.
   Mmoh, 21, is one of three former Tiburon singles champions in the field. Darian King (2016) of Barbados is seeded seventh, and Peter Polansky (2013) of Canada is seeded 12th. Polansky, 31, won the singles title in the $54,160 Columbus (Ohio) Challenger today on an indoor hard court. He will jump 33 places to No. 167 on Monday.
   American Denis Kudla, who lost a thriller in the 2015 Tiburon final, is seeded second in this year's tournament.
   Collin Altamirano, a 23-year-old Sacramentan, is set to play former University of Virginia teammate JC Aragone of Yorba Linda in the Los Angeles area on Monday at about 2 p.m.
   It will be Altamirano's first appearance in the main draw in Tiburon, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and first in five years there. He lost in the second round of qualifying in 2014.
   Here are the Tiburon singles and doubles draws and Monday's schedule.