Challenger Tour: Happy Valley sees Sela as top seed, Fritz and Tiafoe also feature - UBITENNIS
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Challenger Tour: Happy Valley sees Sela as top seed, Fritz and Tiafoe also feature

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Sela is the top seed in Happy Valley

The draw for the Happy Valley Challenger has been released, and Challenger specialist Dudi Sela features as the top seed. The Israeli is amongst the most decorated winners in Challenger history and will be looking to add Happy Valley to his burgeoning collection. Sela will face Uladzimir Ignatik kin the first round.

 

Happy Valley also sees Taylor Fritz enjoy a challenger seeding for the first time. The eighteen year-old American has a favourable draw. Though he is the eighth seed, his scheduled higher seed is Alejandro Gonzalez, who counts clay ahead of hard in the list of his preferred surfaces. Fritz must first negotiate two matches, starting with wildcard Marc Polmans if he is to worry about Gonzalez.

Fritz’s compatriot Bjorn Fratangelo also seems to have been given a favourable draw. As the second seed he starts against a qualifier, and his first seeded match possibly against Renzo Olivo, who like Gonzalez enjoys clay the most. Francis Tiafoe and Dan Evans met each other late last year in a Challenger Final. They both feature in the top half of the draw and both start with qualifiers.

Full Happy Valley Draw (selected picks in bold)

(1) Dudi Sela vs Uladzimir Ignatik

Qualifier vs Dan Evans

Qualifier vs Francis Tiafoe

Jan Satral vs (5) Aleksandr Nedovyesov

(4) Igor Sijsling vs Hiroki Moriya

Andrey Golubev vs Brydan Klein

Marton Fucsovics vs Matteo Donati

Qualifier vs (6) Grega Zemlja

(8) Taylor Fritz vs (WC) Marc Polmans

Alexander Sarkissian vs Peter Gojowczyk

(WC) Matthew Barton vs Nils Langer

(WC) Alex Bolt vs (3) Alejandro Gonzalez

(7) Renzo Olivo vs Dennis Novak

Daniel Nguyen vs Aldin Setkic

(WC) Bradley Mousley vs Laslo Djere

Qualifier vs (2) Bjorn Fratangelo

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Iga Swiatek Appeared To Have An Easy Path To A Third French Title

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Iga Swiatek’s path to a third French Open title in four years looked so easy and accommodating.

 

There was a Brazilian left-hander few fans knew anything about and a Czech ranked 43rd in the world.

There wasn’t even power-hitting Aryna Sabalenka to worry about this time.

Surely, Swiatek could do a French waltz right past Beatriz Haddad Maia to the final and then take care of Karolina Muchova on Saturday.

TABLE WAS SET FOR IGA

The table was set for 22-year-old Iga Swiatek, the current No. 1 who couldn’t lose, or so it seemed.

But Haddad Maia turned out to be better than most observers expected in Thursday’s women’s semifinals. The Brazilian was 6-1 tall, and apparently capable of getting into Swiatek’s head.

The Polish Wonder couldn’t keep her eyes on the ball and still watch Haddad Maia’s move from a very wide stance to a narrow, moving, sometimes closer position even before Swiatek could make contact with her service toss.

HADDAD MAIA PROVIDES SERIOUS TEST

A double fault here and a double fault there, and Swiatek was in the middle of some serious opposition from Haddad Maia. Swiatek was even forced into a 16-point match tiebreaker before she could claim a 6-2, 7-6 (7) victory.

Most of the time, fans have grown to expect love games and few double faults from the usually near-flawless slender and speedy 5-9 Swiatek.

And now she could think about one more opponent. And Muchova already had taken care of Swiatek’s key rival for the world’s No. 1 ranking, the second-ranked Sabalenka, earlier in the day.

MUCHOVA MADE SABALENKA PAY A PRICE

Muchova made Sabalenka pay for her reckless play and over-hit forehands. Muchova, a slender  26-year-old, even won 20 of the last 24 points in a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 upset of Sabalenka.

Of course, current Australian Open champion Sabalenka was hoping for a shot at a second straight Grand Slam title. From a break-point 5-2, match point opportunity in the third set, Sabalenka couldn’t find the court.

Once again, Swiatek will be going against an opponent who held a 1-0 edge in head-to-head matchups before the current French Open. Swiatek had lost one three-set match each against Haddad Maia and the 5-11 Muchova.

Don’t expect the gifted Swiatek to feel the pressure so much in the final against Muchova. The semifinal against Haddad Maia was just a little different. 

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

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Is Iga Swiatek On Her Way To Becoming A Roland Garros Legend?

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Rafa Nadal couldn’t have done it better.

 

There was Iga Swiatek dominating another top 10 opponent on the court Rafa loves so much, while her favourite player is still sidelined by hip surgery and expects his legendary career to come to a close next year.

Indeed, Swiatek may be on her way to becoming a legend herself on Court Philippe Chatrier at the French Open. The Polish Wonder already owns two titles at Roland Garros and is in line to possibly win two more matches there over the next three days for a third French title.

Of course, that’s a long way from the number of titles Nadal has won in the Paris Grand Slam. Fourteen titles sound like an out-of-reach dream for anyone to capture at the same Grand Slam, even the 22-year-old Swiatek.

SWIATEK ON HER GAME

The top-ranked Swiatek was on her game in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, starting strong and then winning nine of the last 12 games against young Coco Gauff in a 6-4, 6-2 win over last year’s runner-up.

Gauff played her usual aggressive game, but at times appeared to go for too much too often. She appeared to overpower Swiatek at times with her big serve, but only on first serves. Otherwise, the 19-year-old American didn’t seem to have her weapons under control much of the match.

IGA ALWAYS APPEARS TO BE READY

No one in the women’s game anticipates better than Swiatek. She always appears to be ready for the next shot.

Opponents can never count Iga out. And allowing her to get ahead in a match is almost like turning over the controls to Swiatek, who already owns three Grand Slam titles and has now advanced to the semifinals in four of her last six Grand Slams.

Swiatek jumped out to a 3-1 lead against the sixth-ranked Gauff, then dropped a pair of games before taking full charge of the match.

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

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Casper Ruud Topples Rune To Reach French Open Semis

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Casper Ruud came out on top in his all-Scandinavian clash with Holger Rune to seal his place in the semi-finals of the French Open. 

 

Ruud, who is seeded fourth in the draw, battled to a 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, win over his Danish opponent in what was a topsy-turvy encounter on the Philippe Chatrier Court. It is the second year in a row that the Norwegian has defeated Rune in the last eight of Roland Garros and he now leads their head-to-head 6-1. He is through to the last four of a major for only the third time in his career. 

“I’m very relieved. I came into this match trying to not play with pressure but it is not easy when you’re playing a big match against Holger who is never easy,” Rune said during his post-match interview. “He is very aggressive. Luckily for me the first two sets he wasn’t feeling it too well. He made a lot of errors and I got a lot of points for free.’
“That helped settle my nerves but he fought back in the third set. In the fourth set, I was lucky to keep that break.”

The highly anticipated nighttime clash began in one-way fashion with Ruud claiming 12 out of the first 15 games with relative ease as an erratic Rune struggled to find his game on the court, hitting a total of 40 unforced errors during the first two sets. 

It wasn’t until the third frame that Ruud finally faced some resistance on the court as his opponent orchestrated the crowd to get behind him. Prompting the 20-year-old to hit a series of impressive shots to revive his hopes.

However, Rune’s comeback was short-lived as Ruud broke once more midway through the fourth set as he moved to a game away from victory. He earned his first match point at 5-2 following a double fault from his rival but failed to convert. Two more opportunities then came and went for Ruud before he managed to serve the match out in the following game.

“I think I did well,” he replied when asked about how he handled his nerves. “I kind of looked at it (the match) as if he was the favourite. He won the last time we played and he has had a better year than me so far.’
“He was hoping to get into his first (Grand Slam) semi-final and I was hungry to get into another semi-final. Luckily it worked out well for me.”

Awaiting the 24-year-old in the semi-finals on Friday will be Alexander Zverev who defeated Tomás Martín Etcheverry in four sets. He trails their head-to-head 1-2 but they have never faced each other on clay. 

“Ruud has been there before. He was in the final here last year, so he knows exactly what it means and what it takes,” Zverev told reporters.  

Ruud is now 16-5 this season when it comes to playing matches on the clay. Since the start of 2020, he has registered 86 wins on the surface which is more than any other player on the ATP Tour.

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