McDonald loses to Aussie in $160K Nottingham semis

Alex Bolt of Australia beat Mackenzie McDonald, a Berkeley,
Calif., native, 6-3, 6-4 today in Nottingham, England. 2018
photo by Paul Bauman

   Qualifier Alex Bolt of Australia defeated Mackenzie McDonald, a 26-year-old Berkeley, Calif., native, 6-3, 6-4 today in the semifinals of the rain-delayed €132,280 ($160,315) Nottingham Trophy on grass in Nottingham, England.

   Bolt, a 28-year-old left-hander, improved to 3-1 (2-1 on grass) against McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla.

   Entering this week, Bolt had gone 0-8 since reaching the second round of the Australian Open in February. The first seven of those matches were on clay.

   In the quarterfinals earlier today, McDonald dismissed 20-year-old wild card Anton Matusevich of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3, and Bolt ousted top seed and a former top-10 player Richard Gasquet, a 34-year-old Frenchman, 6-3, 6-7 (9), 1-0, retired.

   Both McDonald and Bolt have starred in the Fairfield Challenger in Northern California. McDonald won his first ATP Challenger title in Fairfield, a 45-minute drive north of Berkeley, in 2017. Bolt reached the final there the following year, falling to Bjorn Fratangelo. 

   WTA Tour — Fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus topped unseeded Sharon Fichman of Canada and Giuliana Olmos, a product of Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area who represents Mexico, 7-5, 3-6 [10-6] in the semifinals of the bett1open on grass in Berlin. 

   Azarenka won the singles (2010) and doubles (2011) titles in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.  Sabalenka reached the singles final in the 2019 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in nearby San Jose, Calif., losing to Zheng Saisai.

    ITF Men's Circuit — Genaro Olivieri of Argentina beat wild card Sam Riffice, a 22-year-old Sacramento, Calif., native, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) in a semifinal battle of 22-year-olds in the $25,000 Tulsa (Okla.) Pro Championships on hardcourts. 

   Olivieri, competing in his first tournament since late February, had played only four games in his previous two matches. He received a walkover in the second round and won 4-0, retired in the quarterfinals.

   Riffice won NCAA team and singles titles as a Florida junior last month in his adopted hometown of Orlando, Fla. The singles crown gave him an automatic wild card in the U.S. Open, Aug. 30-Sept. 12 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.