ATP Challenger

Andrej Martin takes first Challenger title in nearly two years with San Luis Title, Aljaz Bedene wins in Barletta

Published

7 years ago

17/04/2017

Martin sealed his first title of 2017 with the win over Menendez Maceiras (Zimbio.com)

Andrej Martin ensured that lightning could not strike twice in three weeks as he denied Adrian Menendez Maceiras another Challenger title by defeating the Spaniard 7-5, 6-4 in Mexico. Menendez Maceiras had gone almost a decade between winning his first Challenger title in Pozoblanco and his second in Leon just two weeks ago.

Martin dominated the first set, but a game Menendez Macieras kept in touch until he was finally broken late in the set. Martin finally converted on his fifth break point for the lead.

Martin did drop serve in the second set, but stayed strong from there on in. The Slovak continued to have success against Menendez Macieras’ second serve and was rewarded with two breaks and the title.

It is Martin’s seventh Challenger title, and his first since August 2015.

Britain’s Aljaz Bedene continued his recent good form in Barletta. After briefly dropping out of the Top 100 after a poor start to the season, Bedene sealed his second Challenger title in consecutive weeks. Bedene took down top seed Gastao Elias 7-6, 6-3 for the title, and also dispatched Lukas Rosol and Marco Cecchinato. Bedene projects to move to around No.64 in the world when the rankings are changed to reflect his title run. Bedene is in hot form on the Challenger circuit this year and he adds Barletta to the titles he won in Irving (def. Kukushkin) and Verrazzano (def. Paire.)

Week’s talking points: Miomir Kecmanovic took strides to improve his rapidly growing reputation with a semi-final run that included wins over third seed Stefan Kozlov and seventh seed Marcelo Arevalo. His run was ended by a straight sets loss to Menendez Maceiras. The Serbian projects to move inside the Top 500 for the first time when next week’s rankings come out.

Second seed Gerald Melzer’s poor form across 2017 continued, as he only managed a quarter-final run. The Austrian won four Challenger titles last year, and reached two other finals last year. He would have hoped for a better run this week to take the pressure off of next week’s event in Sarasota, one of the two tournaments where he is defending runner-up points. Melzer’s ranking has dropped this season, and without a good run will struggle to make the main draw of Roland Garros directly.

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ATP Challenger

Danielle Collins beats Caroline Garcia to reach the second semifinal of her career in Miami

Published

3 weeks ago

27/03/2024

sampaolo

Danielle Collins beat Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-2 in 80 minutes to reach her second semifinal at the Miami Open. Collins became the first qualifier to reach the semifinal in the history of this tournament.

Collins achieved her third win against a seeded player in five matches over the past seven days.

Collins dropped just 11 points in nine service games against Garcia and hit 22 winners to Garcia’s 12.

Collins earned a break in the eighth game and held serve to seal the first set 6-3. The US player broke serve in the third game of the second set and never looked back to close out the match in 1 hout and 19 minutes.

Collins has extended her record to 4-0 in her head-to-head matches against Garcia and has not lost a set to her French opponent.

Collins set up a semifinal match against the winner of Wednesday night’s match between Jessica Pegula and Elena Alexandrova, who beat world number one player Iga Swiatek in the fourth round.

Collins won two WTA titles in Palermo and San José in 2021 but she has not reached a WTA Tour level final since losing to Ashleigh Barty in Melbourne in 2022.

“I think Caroline Garcia comes out here and fights her butt off. She hits some really strong shots. I don’t think the set scores are a reflection of how close the match really is”, said Collins.

Garcia beat Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff to reach the quarter finals in Miami for the first time in her career. The French player was troubled by an injury to her right shoulder and received treatment early in the second set.

ATP Challenger

Dominic Thiem To Return At Marbella Challenger, Joins Wawrinka In Stacked Field

Dominic Thiem will be joining Stan Wawrinka in making his return to action at the Marbella challenger next week.

Published

2 years ago

24/03/2022

Tony Fairbairn

Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem (@SK_Tennis - Twitter)

Dominic Thiem will finally make his return to the ATP tour at the Marbella challenger next week.

The Austrian hasn’t played a tennis match since retiring at the grass court event in Mallorca last June due to a wrist injury.

Despite being scheduled to play at the Australian Open and at the Indian Wells-Miami swing, Thiem had to postpone his return as he wasn’t quite ready to compete in matches.

However now Thiem has decided to return as he will begin his clay court swing next week at the Marbella Challenger.

The former Roland Garros finalist took to Instagram to announce the news as he looks to climb back up the rankings.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dominic Thiem (@domithiem)

The world number 50 will face tough competition with former Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka also making his comeback at the event in Spain next week.

At the blockbuster event there will also be the likes of Holger Rune, Pablo Cuevas, Jaume Munar and Lucas Pouille competing.

The winner of the event will receive 125 ranking points but much more importantly for Thiem and Wawrinka much needed match practice ahead of a busy European clay-court swing.

Thiem will be the top seed while Wawrinka will be unseeded with their being a possibility of the two heavyweights meeting in the opening round.

Play will start on Monday with Jaume Munar being the defending champion.

ATP Challenger

Roberto Bautista Agut reaches his second career final in Doha

Published

3 years ago

12/03/2021

sampaolo

Roberto Bautista Agut reached the second final of his career at the Qatar Exxon Mobil with a 6-3 6-3 win over defending champion Andrey Rublev.

Bautista Agut broke serve in the fourth game with a forehand winner to open up a 3-1 lead and held on his next service games to close out the first set 6-3 after 29 minutes.

The Spaniard started the second set with an early break. Rublev broke straight back in the second game and won his next two service games to take a 3-2 lead. Bautista Agut saved two break points to hold serve before getting two consecutive breaks to claim the second set 6-3.

Rublev was playing his first match this week after two walkovers. The Russian player claimed the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam last week.

“It was very difficult to play tennis today, with the windy conditions, but I put a lot of pressure on his second serve and played really good tennis. I played a long match yesterday against Dominic Thiem, but I felt fresh and I had a lot of power on the court. This is one of my favourite tournaments. I played one of my best matches here in Qatar two years ago, and I hope I can win one more match tomorrow”, said Bautista Agut.

Bautista Agut set up a final against Nikoloz Basilashvili, who beat Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.

Basilashvili, who beat Roger Federer in the quarter final, rallied from one break down to win the tie-break of the first set 7-3. The Georgian player broke twice in the second and sixth games to close out the second set 6-1. “To reach the final means a lot. I am playing well and I am relaxed. It’s great to play in front of a crowd and a nice atmosphere”, said Basilshvili.