Before Tuesday, Serbian Laslo Djere didn’t have a win on clay this season or a Top 10 win for his career. Now he has both. The 23-year-old, No. 90 in the ATP Rankings, routed No. 8 Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-3 at the Rio Open presented by Claro.

“It was a great day. The biggest win in my career so I’m really happy right now… I hit the ball really well. He played a bit worse than normally I think, to be honest. But I had a great day. I felt the ball really well, hitting well from the baseline and then attacking well when it was time for that,” Djere said. “This is my favourite surface. So I know that I can play great tennis on clay.”

Soak it in ?️

Laslo Djere stuns #RioOpen top seed Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-3 to earn the first Top 10 scalp of his career and his first clay court win of the season. pic.twitter.com/yp1wYfhbtQ

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 20, 2019

The 6’2” right-hander broke the top-seeded Thiem five times and benefitted from five double faults from the Austrian, an eight-time clay-court ATP Tour titlist. Djere lost his serve in the opening game, but he settled in from there, breaking Thiem twice in the opener.

The 2018 Roland Garros finalist never found his best level. He was broken to start the second set and again in the seventh and ninth games.

Thiem fell to 3-4 on the young season. He won the ATP 500 title in Rio in 2017 and had never lost prior to the quarter-finals in his two other appearances (2016, 2018). Djere will next meet either Brazilian wild card Thiago Seyboth Wild or Japan’s Taro Daniel.

Third seed Marco Cecchinato, who won the Argentina Open title on Sunday in Buenos Aires, was also upset. Slovenian Aljaz Bedene grinded out a 7-5, 7-6(1) victory and will meet Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro, who beat Portugal’s Pedro Sousa 6-3, 6-2.

#NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud will face fifth seed Joao Sousa in the second round. Ruud beat Argentine lucky loser Carlos Berlocq 6-1, 6-2, and Sousa prevailed past Argentina’s Guido Pella 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

When Mackenzie McDonald was 12 years old, he competed in Delray Beach at a junior clay-court tournament. Little did he know that just more than a decade later, he’d be playing on Stadium Court in the Delray Beach Open.

“I didn’t know about the pro tournament at the time, but I definitely had pro aspirations when I was super young,” McDonald. “I’m living out my dream now, so it’s pretty cool.”

Much of the attention on the young Americans has gone to three 21-year-olds: defending champion Frances Tiafoe, 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier Taylor Fritz and last week’s New York Open titlist Reilly Opelka. McDonald followed a different path than his compatriots, attending UCLA for three years and winning the 2016 NCAA Singles Tournament before turning professional. On Tuesday afternoon, McDonald defeated Fritz, his good friend, to reach the second round in Florida.

“They’re ranked higher than me and they’ve had some great results. I’ve had my fair share, too. But Taylor’s played this tournament four times. This is my first time, so I have some catching up to do,” McDonald said. “I’ll make my mark. I still consider myself pretty young. I know I’m not the youngest, but wins like that help prove that I’m at their level, maybe better and I just have to keep doing my job.”

McDonald first broke out on the international scene at last year’s Australian Open. After qualifying in Melbourne and beating Swede Elias Ymer in the first round of the main draw, McDonald pushed 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov to the limit. The American extended Dimitrov to a fifth set, with the Bulgarian ultimately winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6.

“I was happy I got a couple matches before playing on that big stage in my first Grand Slam draw off of qualifying, not a wild card,” McDonald said. “That match was massive for me, showed me what I could do, showed me my top level in a way.”

The California native maintained his momentum, reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon. Later in the season, he qualified for the Rolex Shanghai Masters, an ATP Masters 1000 event, and beat former World No. 3 Milos Raonic. McDonald may not be as young as some of his fellow Americans, but he’s improving his level just the same.

“It’s really only his third year on the ATP Tour after winning NCAAs. He started off playing the Futures circuit and had the success there and went to Challengers, had success there and really broke through last year at Wimbledon, and that’s when people really started talking about him,” said one of McDonald’s coaches, Michael Russell. “He’s had some great wins and he’s a player to contend with and we’ve been working really hard to make him believe that and [give him] the mindset that he could be a Top 50 player.

“That’s a lot of it with most of these players. All of these guys are so talented and such great athletes, but it’s having that belief and the confidence when you go out there that you are the best player on the court. Having the player buy into that and really believing that is super important.”

McDonald brings an interesting game to the court. While he stands just 5’10”, McDonald is plenty aggressive.

“I play flat and fast. I like to come in and volley, I have good returns and I’m really quick,” McDonald said. “I think some of those long points [I play] are fun to watch.”

“He’s a great ball-striker, an excellent returner, very quick and he uses his speed to take time away from his opponents,” Russell said. “He continues to look for opportunities to come to net and force the issue.”

McDonald has shown his potential, but he has only advanced to one ATP Tour quarter-final, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last June. The World No. 84 is determined to keep working hard daily to improve his game, and with it, his results.

“Tennis is such a weird sport. You’ve just got to keep fighting every day. That’s the thing. When I first started, it was really tough at first but I was not going to give up, I just kept fighting and trying to find a way, because that’s all I could do,” McDonald said. “I really want to be good at this sport… when you keep working hard, good things happen.

“Now I’m in the Top 100, so it’s just chasing those little goals and gains and trying to make the most out of it.”

#NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime had nothing to lose on Tuesday evening against second seed Fabio Fognini, and he played like it. The 18-year-old wild card picked up one of the biggest wins of his career, dismissing the Italian 6-2, 6-3 at the Rio Open presented by Claro.

“It’s at the top, for sure, with my most memorable wins,” Auger-Aliassime said. “You come here, you play the second seed, obviously you’re not favoured. But you just believe in your tennis, you believe in your game. These wins, that’s what you work for.”

Serving for the match, at 5-3, 40/15, Auger-Aliassime needed three match points, but the teenager ultimately put away Fognini, who fell to 3-5 this year, including 0-3 on clay.

“After losing the first point, I got a bit worried. You always want to win the first point of the last game, but then I recovered well with some good serves, and I think I did what I had to do on the match points,” Auger-Aliassime said.

The win against Fognini, who finished 2018 at a career-high No. 13 but has since fallen to No. 16, is Auger-Aliassime’s biggest win by ATP Ranking. In August, at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, he beat then-No. 18 Lucas Pouille for his first Top 20 win.

Flashback: Felix, 17, Notches ‘Statement’ Top 20 Win In Toronto

The teenager will next meet Chile’s Christian Garin, who beat Auger-Aliassime in three sets last week at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires. Garin advanced on Tuesday in Rio with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Germany’s Maximilian Marterer.

All sixteen first-round matches took place on Tuesday in Rio, after rain washed out Monday’s schedule. Other winners include Spain’s Jaume Munar, who knocked out Argentine Leonardo Mayer 7-6(5), 6-4. The 21-year-old Munar will meet Brit Cameron Norrie, who needed only 59 minutes to beat sixth seed Dusan Lajovic 6-2, 6-1.

Nick Kyrgios held his nerve to win an all-Aussie battle against fifth seed John Millman on Monday at the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com, firing 19 aces to advance 6-4, 6-7(1), 7-6(3).

“My serve keeps me bailing me out of these types of matches, which is pretty fortunate for me,” said Kyrgios. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. John is one of the toughest competitors on tour and he’s a good mate of mine, so I’m just happy to get through with the win.”

Having lost their only previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting in the first round of the 2017 US Open, Kyrgios proved eager to turn the tables. He opened the match with a break of serve and rode that slight advantage to take the first set. Both men held serve throughout the second set to force a tie-break, but Kyrgios double faulted to give Millman a 3/0 lead and the fifth seed forced a decider.

The final set featured 12 more routine service holds to bring another tie-break, but Kyrgios raised his level to control the baseline rallies and advance after two hours and four minutes. He’ll take on either 2015 champion Ivo Karlovic of Croatia or Radu Albot of Moldova in the next round.

The opening match of the evening session saw wild card Lloyd Harris of South Africa earn the second ATP Tour main draw win of his career with a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory over qualifier Darian King of Barbados. Harris, who made his debut in the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings earlier this month, saved three set points on his serve at 4-5 in the opening set.

“I’m happy to get the win and thought I played pretty good tonight,” said Harris. “I’ve been playing my best tennis over the past six months and if I play well, I believe I can beat anyone.”

A single break in each set was all Lukas Lacko of Slovakia required to beat qualifier Yosuke Watanuki of Japan 6-4, 6-4. Next up for Lacko is the winner between second seed John Isner of the United States and Peter Polansky of Canada.

Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan defeated Feliciano Lopez 7-6(5), 6-2 for his first win over the Spaniard in their four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings. Awaiting him in the next round will be the winner between eighth seed Adrian Mannarino of France and Brayden Schnur of Canada, last week’s runner-up at the New York Open (l. to Opelka).