Day of upsets at Costa Mesa Pro Classic

COSTA MESA — The Costa Mesa Pro Classic is providing its own version of March Madness at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Through two rounds, only five of the top eight seeds remain in singles competition, and only one of the four top-seeded doubles pairs is alive.

In singles play, third-seeded Bradley Klahn of Poway moved on, as did fourth, fifth and seventh seeds Matt Reid of Australia, Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chili, and Sanam Singh of India. Dropping out were sixth-seeded Daniel Kosakowski of Downey, who was beaten by Torrance’s Jason Jung, and eighth-seeded Joshua Milton upended by America’s Dennis Nevolo.

One unseeded Orange County native who did advance was Nicholas Meister of Trabuco Canyon, who survived a fiercely contested match against 16-year-old West Covina high school junior Ernesto Escobedo.

On Tuesday, top-seeded Jorge Aguilar was beaten by Min Hyeok Cho.

In quarterfinals doubles action Wednesday, the top-seeded duo of Newport Beach’s Carsten Ball and fellow American Tennys Sandgren lost, as did the third-seeded pair of Aguilar and Juan Carlos Saez.

Second-round singles and semifinals doubles actions continues Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center. Among the intriguing matchups: No. 2 seed Sandgren against Takanyi Garanganga of Zimbabwe; Meister versus seventh-seeded Singh, who won last week’s USTA’s Pro Circuit event in Calabasas; and second-seeded doubles duo Matt Reid and Andrew Whittington, who face off against Ji Sung Nam and Cho.

Part of the USTA’s Pro Circuit, the March $15,000 event features 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams. All players are seeking to boost their world tennis ranking through participating in USTA Pro Circuit events held weekly across the country.

The finals for both singles and doubles are Sunday at Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

— From staff reports