Omni Kumar, a 21-year-old California native, earned his first career ATP Tour main-draw win on Monday, defeating France’s Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6 (3) at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
Kumar, a Duke product, has never even won a main-draw match in the second-tier Challenger series. He got into the Winston-Salem event as a lucky loser from qualifying when Austria’s Dominic Thiem withdrew due to gastroenteritis.
Kumar converted one of his two break points in the match while saving the only break point on his serve. He advances to oppose eighth-seeded Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.
France’s Richard Gasquet, the 12th seed, beat Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler 6-4, 6-4, and 14th-seeded Marton Fucsovics of Hungary posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over China’s Zhizhen Zhang in second-round matches. One more second-round match was contested late Monday night, with sixth-seeded Sebastian Baez of Argentina meeting Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan.
Other first-round winners were U.S. qualifier Mitchell Krueger, U.S. wild-card entrant Michael Mmoh, Australia’s Max Purcell and Rinky Hijikata, Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta, Great Britain’s Jack Draper, Germany’s Dominik Koepfer, and France’s Luca Van Assche.
–Field Level Media