Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun earned a first-ever win over Sam Querrey at the Miami Open on Wednesday, while Vasek Pospisil was docked a point after an outburst.
Lu, who is ranked No. 1,020, defeated Querrey, 6-3, 6-4 in 70 minutes.
The 37-year-old had not beaten his American opponent in three previous meetings and has never won consecutive main-draw matches in Miami, a record he has a chance to erase today in a meeting with top-seeded Daniil Medvedev for a spot in the round-of-32.
Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY
Meanwhile, angry about politics in tennis, Pospisil of Canada staged a tantrum and was docked a point to lose the first set in his opening-round match against Mackenzie McDonald of the US.
Pospisil, who has been trying to set up a new group to represent men’s professional players, regained his composure, but lost to qualifier McDonald 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
During a changeover after his first-set meltdown, Pospisil used a profanity to describe ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi and complained about a meeting they attended on Tuesday.
Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY
Pospisil told the chair umpire Gaudenzi was “screaming at me in a player meeting for trying to unite the players — for an hour and a half... If you want to default me, I’ll gladly sue this whole organization.”
Pospisil and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic have been trying to set up the new group.
Tennis players never have had a union.
The ATP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pospisil’s tirade.
Pospisil angrily launched a ball out of the court and smashed two rackets in the first set.
Serving while facing a set point, he was penalized for verbal abuse to lose the set.
Separately, John Isner, who was to play McDonald in the second round, has called on the ATP Tour to give players a clearer picture of the decisionmaking process behind cuts to prize money, although the American walked back some of his fiery criticism from last month.
Isner had lashed out at the men’s governing body on Twitter after the Miami Open, an ATP Masters 1000 event, cut its total prize purse by 60 percent.
Last month, he called the ATP a “broken system” and demanded a “true audit” of tournaments’ finances, saying that tennis was “plagued by conflict and lack of transparency.”
On Wednesday, he said his comments were not really about the prize money itself.
“It’s about the system of the ATP, and why the decisions are made and what goes into the prize money being so low,” he said. “I do think recently the players have felt like the tour has been more transparent with them. We’re trying to understand the process a bit more.”
In women’s play, American Sloane Stephens earned her first victory of the year by rallying past qualifier Oceane Dodin of France 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-2.
Stephens, who won the tournament in 2018, had been 0-4 previously this year and had not won a match since the French Open in September last year.
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