SAN DIEGO – San Diego State freshman Judson Blair posted two victories in consolation play at the 2020 Oracle ITA Masters event this past weekend, Oct. 9-11, at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
In the main draw last Friday, Blair drew a tough assignment in his first-round match with the eventual tournament champion Brandon Holt, a USC alumnus who garnered four All-America accolades as a collegian and is the son of two-time U.S. Open winner Tracy Austin.
Despite dropping a 7-5, 6-1 decision, Blair held his own in the first set and had two break chances with the score knotted at 5-5 before Holt pulled away.
Blair rebounded later that afternoon in the back draw with an impressive 6-2, 6-1 triumph over David Fox, a former all-conference honoree at the University of Denver and Middle Tennessee State.
Blair then wrapped up play on Saturday with his second straight victory, turning on the afterburners in a super-tiebreaker over Stanford's Timothy Sah, 1-6, 6-0, 10-2. As a sophomore in 2019, Sah shared the Cardinal's team lead with 23 singles victories.
Earlier this month, Blair qualified for the Oracle ITA Masters with a pair of wins via super-tiebreaker over San Diego Christian sophomore Chris Papa (3-6, 6-4, 10-4) and UC Davis senior Ivan Thamma (6-4, 1-6, 10-6) in a wild card invitational also held Barnes Tennis Center.
A native of Salem, Oregon, Blair was tabbed a five-star recruit by TennisRecruiting.net and received a No. 4 ranking in the Pacific Northwest by the website after completing a stellar prep career at Sprague High School.