By Dave Worsley
New Zealand wildcard Austen Childs, 16 has caused a big upset in the first round of the US$15,000 ASB Men's International Futures in Hamilton beating top seed Damian Patriarca of Argentina in straight sets.
Childs, from Tauranga, defeated the 275th ranked Patriarca 6-1 6-4 to make the second round and will now earn his first ever ATP ranking point.
"Last week in the Blenheim Futures wasn't so good for me. So today playing the top seed I thought I didn't have anything to lose anyway so I could go after it. I thought he was good but thought I could beat him," said Childs.
The Kiwi player reached the junior Australian Open quarter-finals in January and is ranked at 41 in the world juniors but is playing in just his second Futures event.
He served seven aces compared to his more experienced opponent's one ace and at times played well above his years.
Childs started the match well, holding his serve easily and then breaking Patriarca's serve. He then dropped his own serve but won the remaining four games to take the set 6-1 in 27 minutes.
The second set had Childs racing away to a 5-1 lead having broken the Argentines serve in the first game.
"I just wanted to win his serve at the start of the second set. I didn't want to be negative. I wanted to stay positive," he said.
However, nerves appeared to take hold of the Bay of Plenty players game as he dropped the next three games to make the score 5-4.
"After 5-1 he wasn't making so many mistakes. I was thinking about it (winning) too much," said Childs.
It took until the fourth match point for him to finally secure the win and a second round match on Thursday against either Jasper Smit from the Netherlands or American David Martin.
Earlier in the day, wildcard Matt Simpson from North Harbour was defeated by Norway's Stian Boretti in straight sets after rain had delayed play by three hours.
Kiwi No1 Mark Nielsen is likely to withdraw from the tournament as a result of an injury he sustained last week. He was to play Aussie qualifier Carsten Ball only just made it through qualifying having to defend off talented Kiwi 16-year-old Marcus Daniell.
Ball is a talented, but fiery player who is the son of former Aussie top-80 ranked Syd Ball.
Nielsen will be replaced by a lucky loser from the qualifying draw.
Day two of the event will see Canterbury player Dan King-Turner play eighth seed Felipe Parada of Chile.
Davis Cup team mate Rubin Statham faces Australian Open junior runner-up Nick Lindahl of Australia, while Rubin's brother Oliver is up against sixth seeded American Scott Lipsky.
Tennis: Childs upsets top seed
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