A professional tennis player’s career can change in just one week, and the challenger circuit this week created milestones for several talented players. One local girl did her home town proud in reaching her first challenger final, a Russian teenager lived up to the hype of being a former number one junior by winning her first pro tournament, and a claycourt specialist snapped a winless season by winning the biggest title of his decade-long career.
First, to the women’s side. The $50,000 event in Las Vegas has always boasted a strong field and this year was no exception; all of the seeded players were ranked among the world’s top 100. In the end, Frenchwoman Camille Pin snapped a five match losing streak in route to taking the title with a 6-4 6-1 win over Las Vegas native Asia Muhammed. While Pin’s form throughout the week was extremely impressive (her first serve percentage in the final was 96%), Muhammed was easily the biggest story of the tournament. Having never won a round in the main draw of a challenger before, the 16 year old used an aggressive all-court game and big kick serve to come through several long matches. The most telling sign of her rapid improvement was a 6-4 6-0 win in the first round over Melinda Czink, a player she only managed four games against in the qualifying of the US Open last year. However, Muhammed wasn’t the only success story amongst the young American brigade this week; Madison Brengle beat second seeded Yvonne Meusberger on her way to the semifinals, and Coco Vandeweghe recorded the biggest win of her career in knocking out top seeded Aravane Rezai in the first round.
At the $25,000 event in Minsk, Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won the first challenger title of her career in dominating fashion, sweeping the first 11 games on her way to a 6-0 6-1 victory of Nikola Frankova of the Czech Republic. Minsk has been good to Pavlyuchenkova so far in her career; her only other challenger final, back in 2006, also came in the Belarusian capital. Despite the lopsided score, Frankova can also take some positives out of this week in reaching her first challenger final after only getting into the draw as a lucky loser. Both girls are also scheduled to compete at $25,000 tournaments later this month in St. Petersburg and Moscow
2008 had not gotten off to a promising start for either of the finalists at the $125,000 Bancolombia Open in Bogota; Spaniard Ivan Navarro sported a 1-7 record going into this week while Brazilian Marcos Daniel hadn’t won a match all year. However, Daniel was able to turn his year around by winning the biggest title of her career, prevailing 3-6 6-1 6-3 over Pastor. The win puts the 29 year old back into the top 100 for the first time since 2006. Despite the loss, this week also allowed Pastor to reverse his bad luck and gives him much to look forward to as the claycourt season, where Pastor has always had his best results, approaches.
Kyoto hosted its long-standing $35,000 challenger event this week, and Go Soeda of Japan thrilled the home crowd by winning a tense 7-6 2-6 6-4 final over Matthias Bachinger of Germany. This win gave Soeda his first challenger title of the year. Both players will also move up to new career high rankings this week.
On the futures circuit, Rui Machado of Portugal won his third title in a row as he took the $15,000 event in Lagos. The 23 year old is now on an 18 match winning streak. Brydan Klein, the 2007 Australian Open boys’ singles champion, won the $15,000 event in Hamilton, and new Canadian citizen Eric Chvojka won at the $15,000 tournament in Gatineau, which is the first of three futures event being held in Canada this month.
On the women’s side, Elisa Balsamo of Italy prevailed at the $10,000 event in Sabadell and Ellen Barry of New Zealand satisfied the home crowd by winning the $10,000 event in Hamilton. The title was the first of Barry’s professional career.
“In the second set, I started going for my shots,” Barry said. “In the third I tightened up again, but managed to get an early break and go from there. I hope to continue doing well now in $25,000 and $50,000 events and I hope it’s going to be a good year for me.”
The women will continue to have the spotlight on them this week as Andreja Klepac of Slovenia leads the way at the $50,000 event in New Delhi. Croatian Nika Ozegovic will contest her first challenger of the year as the top seed at the $25,000 event in Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, while Australian Monique Adamczak takes top billing at the $25,000 event in Kalgoorie, the first of two $25,000 events being held in the Western region of Australia this month. On the men’s side, Juan Pablo Brzezicki of Argentina is the top seed at the $35,000 event in Salinas, while Santiago Ventura of Spain leads the pack at the $35,000 event in Tanger, the first of two events held in Morocco this month.