One year ago J.J. Wolf arrived in Houston as the No. 157 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. This edition he is the fifth seed and showed why on Tuesday.

Wolf cruised past Australian Jordan Thompson 6-3, 6-2 in 74 minutes to reach the second round of the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship. 

“First clay-court tournament for me of the year, so I was really excited,” Wolf said. “Just trying to kind of be patient and play some good clay-court tennis. Holding serve was big for me today.”

The American did not face a break point and lost just four first-serve points (22/26) to move past Thompson. Wolf, who enjoys the atmosphere in Houston, will next play countryman Denis Kudla. 

“There’s no place like it. It’s so much fun playing here, it’s such a nice club,” Wolf said. “The people are awesome, the fans are awesome, everybody within the tournament is awesome as well.”

Cristian Garin, the 2019 Houston champion, made a good start to his tournament with a 6-3, 6-0 win against Bolivian Hugo Dellien. The Chilean is now 9-1 at River Oaks Country Club.