It is the final week of the Challenger season on the ATP World Tour, and there still intriguing stories to be told in 2017.
Perhaps the most significant of these is the story of young Brit Jay Clarke, who secured a massive win to earn a place in a second consecutive Challenger quarter-final in Bangalore, India.
Clarke took down fifth seed Ramkumar Ramanthan in a close three-set battle 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Clarke rallied after losing the first set, to win the next two. He saved five break points in a hard-fought deciding set, whilst capitalising himself to take the all important break.
The win over Ramanathan ranks as Clarke’s second best in his career, with Ramanathan’s ranking of No.139 second only to Illa Marchenko’s No.117 when Clarke defeated him back in June.
The 19 year-old Clarke reached the quarter-finals in Pune last week. He also defeated a seeded player there in American Evan King.
Clarke will have a chance to contest his first Challenger semi-final if he wins his next match. The seedings would have expected him to face fourth seed Elias Ymer, but the young Swede lost 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 to Croatia’s Ante Pavic.
Clarke will go into the match with his ranking stronger than Pavic’s by 24 places. Clarke is at a career-high ranking of No.279 this week after his exploits in Pune saw him move up nine places.
Wins at this stage of the season could prove crucial for Clarke, with more at stake than just this tournament. A ranking of No.279 would not be enough to see him earn a direct place in the entry lists for Australian Open Qualifying next year.
However, if Clarke could beat Pavic and go on to reach the final, or better, he could put himself inside the Top 250. That would likely be enough to see him enter a Grand Slam Qualifying tournament on his own merit.
Clarke enjoyed the benefit of a wildcard for Wimbledon Qualifying this year, and came within a whisker of making the main draw. He had led by two sets against Austria’s Sebastian Ofner before losing in five in the final round.
