Former Top Ten player Jurgen Melzer may have to play second fiddle to his now higher-ranked brother Gerald, but the elder Melzer brother can at least boast an appearance in a singles final this week.
That appearance comes at Challenger level, as Melzer defeated unlikely lucky loser semi-finalist Edward Corrie of Great Britain 64 76 in Budapest. Melzer had had a far tougher run to the semis than Corrie, forced to defeat the likes of sixth seed Norbert Gombos and third seed Marius Copil, whilst Corrie had rather fortuitously managed to avoid facing any seeds, instead settling for defeating the vanquishers of seeds, including Yannik Reuter and Yannick Maden.
The match was decided by a single break advantage in the first set, and then a close second set, as Corrie kept things close with the former Roland Garros semi-finalist, but ultimately could not cope with the Austrian’s consistency and power.
Melzer will face unseeded Martin Fucsovics in the final. The Hungarian Fuscovics in unseeded, but no stranger to deep runs at Challengers, having picked up two titles at this level in 2013. He is often seeded at these types of events, but a slow start to the year saw his ranking drop to far to earn that right at this event. He accounted for eighth seeded Italian Luca Vanni in the quarters. His semi final opponent was eighteen year-old Norwegian prodigy Casper Ruud, who had knocked out fellow NetGen Finals hopeful Duckhee Lee in the first-round, and followed that up with impressive wins over Mirza Basic and Alexey Vatutin, simply could not cope with Fucsovics, failing to win a single game.
Despite the loss, Ruud is still a contender for the NextGen ATP finals, and will likely gain a number of points when he moves to his favoured clay surface.
Melzer’s form and history as a Top 100 player must make him the favourite for the title, though his veteran status and the fact that Fucsovics had such an easy win in the semis might mean the Hungarian is fresher.
