Jenson Brooksby saw his title defense in the first round of the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship come to an end, as he lost 6-4, 6-2 to Mackenzie McDonald on Monday in Houston.
Brooksby, the eighth seed, struggled with his second serve, winning just 6 of 16 points (37.4%). McDonald prevailed on 13 of 19 second-serve points (68.4%).
Four U.S. players have won the clay-court event the past four years, with Brooksby following Ben Shelton (2024), Frances Tiafoe (2023) and Reilly Opelka (2022).
Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante routed the United States’ Colton Smith 6-0, 6-3.
Also moving into the second round were Australian qualifier Alex Bolt, Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and China’s Zhizhen Zhang, all with straight-set wins.
Grand Prix Hassan II
Eighth-seeded Yannick Hanfmann of Germany got the decisive service break on his fourth match point of the game, closing out a 7-6 (6), 6-4 first-round win over the Netherlands’ Jesper de Jong in Marrakech, Morocco.
Neither player broke serve in the opening set. Hanfmann got the break through to go up 2-1 in the second before de Jong equalized at 3-3. Hanfmann wound up winning 39 of 43 his first-serve points (90.7%).
The Moroccan wild-card entrants emerged with opening-round victories. Taha Baadi pulled out a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 decision over Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic, and Karim Bennani topped France’s Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
–Field Level Media
