The challenger circuit this week saw a mixture of new old and faces hoisting up the trophies this week. Two young players on the men’s side recorded their first tournament wins on the challenger circuit, while a former breakout star on the WTA Tour took a big step in moving back to that level by winning her first singles title since 2004.
First, to the men’s side. In Cherbourg, Frenchman Thierry Ascione delighted the home crowd by winning the $50,000 event 6-4 7-6 over Kristian Pless of Denmark. The 27 year old has been hovering just inside the world’s top 100 for several months, but the strong form he showed by only losing one set this week shows that Ascione might be ready to compete exclusively on the ATP Tour. Despite the loss in the final, Pless can still take comfort in the fact that this was his best tournament in several months. After going 13-12 on the challenger circuit last fall, Pless, who cruised to the finals without losing a set began to rediscover the form that saw him reach a career high ranking of 65 back in 2002. He’ll head to Indian Wells next, where he lost in the first round of the main draw last year.
At the $35,000 Volkswagen Challenger in Wolfsburg, Louk Sorensen became the first Irishman to win a challenger in well over a decade. He came through the qualifying rounds to prevail 7-6 4-6 6-4 in a thrilling final over Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan. For Sorensen, who now lives and trains in Germany, the win pushes him into the top 250 for the first time in his career and will almost guarantee a place into the qualifying draw at Roland Garros. The result of the final likely came down to match toughness; Dustov was competing in his first event of the year while Sorensen had already contested 17 matches in 2008.
The $35,000 Challenger Providencia in Santiago featured two young South American players who are both playing the best tennis of their careers. In the end, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil came through and won 6-4 7-6 over Eduardo Schwank of Argentina. For the 20 year old Bellucci, it was the first challenger title of his young career. Having competed in over 30 events in the last 12 months, the majority of them on clay, Bellucci’s vast experience on the red dirt make him a likely candidate to begin to break through at the ATP level during the spring season. Both Belucci and Schwank are scheduled to compete at challenger events over the next two weeks in Bogota and Salinas.
On the women’s side, it hasn’t been an easy few years for Barbora Zahalova Strycova. In her rookie year on tour back in 2004, she made the transition from the juniors to the pros look effortless with results that included a 4th round finish at Indian Wells and a semifinal showing at a WTA Tour event in Guangzhou. However, Strycova quickly fell out of the top 100 and has yet to regain the level that took her to a career high of #55. However, her win this week at the $25,000 event in Fort Walton Beach is a strong statement towards her commitment to regaining that old form. The 6-3 5-7 7-6 win in the final over American teenager Melanie Oudin gave Strycova her first challenger title in four years. Despite the loss, 2008 has gotten off to a promising start for Oudin; in her only other event of the year, she reached the semifinals at the $25,000 tournament held last week in Clearwater.
On the futures circuit this week, several men were able to score back-to-back tournament victories. Jamie Baker of Great Britain won his second title in a row in Harlingen, Alexander Satschko of Germany did the same in New Delhi, and Jeremy Blandin of France made it a clean sweep of the two events in Benin City. On the women’s side, Ukrainian teenager Anastasia Kharchenko also made it a clean sweep of the two $10,000 events held in Benin City this month. Michaela Johansson of Sweden more than lived up to her billing as top seed at the $10,000 event in Wellington as she stormed through the field with the loss of just 18 games in five matches; she’ll look to do the same at the next $10,000 event in New Zealand, which will be held this week in Hamilton.
The spotlight on the challenger circuit turns over to the women this week with the $50,000 challenger event held in Las Vegas. All of the seeds at this event are ranked among the world’s top 100, while the qualifying draw features several notable players on the comeback trail including Sesil Karatantcheva, Mirjana Lucic, and Elena Bovina. On the men’s side, Martin Vassallo Arugello leads the way at the $125,000 event in Bogota, while Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei is the top seed at the $35,000 event in Kyoto.
WTA Tour News
Challenger and futures write-up for the week of February 24th
This week, the challengers and futures circuit saw a mixture of both young and old taking center stage. One Russian player continued her impressive run on the ITF circuit, a French veteran continues to play his best tennis at the age of 30, and Britain’s #1 female player continues to fly the flag this week under the weight of her nation’s shoulders.
In Bensacon, Frenchman Marc Gicquel delighted the local crowd by winning the $125,000 event 7-6 6-4 over Alexander Peya of Austria. At an age where many of his contemporaries have retired, the 30 year old is playing some of the best tennis of his career. He reached the final at the ATP event in Lyon last November and has now picked up the biggest title of his career. While the final loss was disappointing for Peya, it was still his best result in quite some time. The 27 year old struggled to find his form throughout all of last year and found himself sitting at #249 in the rankings heading into Bensacon; this was his lowest ranking since mid-2006. The result propels Peya to a spot just outside of the top 200 this week and he’ll look to continue playing with the form that saw him reach a career high of #97 in the rankings.
Onto the women’s side, where, in Capriolo, top ranked British player Anne Keothavong lived up to her billing as the number one seed at this $25,000 event by winning the final 6-1 2-6 6-3 over Vesna Manasieva of Russia. The 24 year old Keothavong, who broke through on the WTA Tour last fall by reaching her first ever semifinal in Kolkata, has now fully recovered from a rib injury which hampered her at the end of last year and is setting her sights on becoming the first British woman to crack the top 100 since Sam Smith in 1999. Manasieva, who was searching for her first challenger title this week, has still had an impressive start to 2008 by reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA event in Pattaya City and qualifying for the WTA event in Auckland. With only a handful of points to defend until this summer, the teenager can only continue to climb up the rankings and may be a regular fixture on the WTA tour by the end of the year.
The city of Clearwater hosted the first of two $25,000 events in Florida this month. Regina Kulikova of Russia continued her dominance on the ITF circuit with a 6-4 6-4 victory in the final over qualifier Yevheniia Savranska of Ukraine. Kulikova, who broke out last summer by reaching the finals of six consecutive $25,000 events in Asia and winning three of them, swept through the tournament this week without losing a set. The nineteen year old rises to a new career high ranking this week and will be the favorite to win the $25,000 event in Fort Walton Beach this week. This tournament was also home to Venezuelan Milagros Sequera’s comeback. Sequera, who won the WTA event in Fes last year, was arguably playing the best tennis of her career before she sustained a left foot injury in August that took her off the tour for over six months. The effects may not have fully gone away either; she bowed out in the second round of the singles event and then withdrew from the doubles event.
On the men’s side, the futures circuit belonged to the top seeds this week; four out of eight top seeds this week hoisted up the winners’ trophies. Pavel Snobel of the Czech Republic won the event in Zagreb this week, Michael Quintero of Colombia prevailed in La Habana, Alexander Satschko of Germany double-bageled his Korean opponent in the final to win in Kolkata, and Paolo Lorenzi of Italy satisfied the local crowd by prevailing in Trenton. Jamie Baker of Great Britain also won in Brownsville this week, but it was his first round match up against 15 year old Ryan Harrison of Texas that was the most hyped of the tournament. Harrison reached the semifinals of the boys’ event at the Australian Open this year and many predicted him to score an upset over the affable Brit. However, Baker provided little for the pro-Harrison crowd to cheer for, easily prevailing 6-3 6-2 before sweeping through the tournament without losing a set.
Ukranian teenagers dominated the futures events on the women’s side this week with both Anastasia Kharchenko and Tetyana Arefyeva picking up titles. Unranked going into Benin City this week, Kharchenko stormed through qualifying and then breezed through the tournament without losing a set. With the title, the 18 year old will enter the rankings for the first time next week. Arefveya also picked up the first title of her career this week by winning the event in Melilla.
Next week will only feature smaller challenger events for both the men and the women, which will allow the chance for some new faces to break through. Thierry Ascione of France will lead the way as the top seed at the $50,000 event in Cherbourg, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo is the top seed at the $35,000 event in Santiago, and Philipp Petzschner of Germany will look to build on his good form he showed at the event in Belgrade this month when he plays as the top seed at the $35,000 event in Wolfsburg. On the women’s side, top seeded Shuai Zhang of China is looking for her first title of the year while Kulikova hopes to make it two tournament wins in a row at the $25,000 event in Fort Walton Beach, the only challenger event for the ladies this week.
Challenger/Futures Write-Up for February 18th
The challenger and futures circuits on both the men’s and women’s tours this week showcased what was arguably some of the most competitive and high quality tennis in recent memory. Not only did three of the four challengers this week have finals that ended in a third set tiebreak, but Ivan Ljubicic also became one of the highest ranked players to ever compete in a challenger event.
The clear highlight on the challenger circuit this week was the $125,000 event held in East London, South Africa. The field was on a similar level as an ATP event, with former top five player Ivan Ljubicic, top fifty player Stefan Koubek, 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johannson, and perennial ironman Jonas Bjorkman the event’s top four seeds. The top-seeded Ljubicic, now ranked 24 in the world, decided to pull out of the ATP event in Marseille and request a last minute wild card here in order to prove to his critics that he was still a serious contender for the Olympics.
“The press back home is pretty rough and if I didn’t win here, they would say I was finished and that I should give up,” Ljubicic said.
Although he started out slowly this week and almost fell in the first round to Lamine Ouahab, a qualifier from Algeria, Ljubicic said his game improved progressively with each round. He saved his best form for the final and put together an immaculate performance against Stefan Koubek; he defeated the 54th ranked Austrian 7-6 6-4 with an ace on match point.
“It’s not easy to win a challenger, especially when you have to beat players like Thomas Johansson and Stefan Koubek,” Ljubicic said. “But this victory is good for my confidence and I can take a lot away from this week.”
At the $125,000 event in Belgrade, Serbia, Croatian Roko Karanusic used his big serve and aggressive all-court game to earn the biggest title of his career to date. Karanusic defeated German Philipp Petzschner in a thrilling three-set final that culminated in a third-set tiebreaker 5-7 6-1 7-6. The win catapults the Croat to new career high ranking; in fact, he’ll find himself in the top 100 for the first time.
On the women’s side, Johanna Larsson of Sweden thrilled the home crowd by taking the $25,000 event in Stockholm. She overcame a slow start to win 0-6 6-1 7-6 over Barbara Zahalova Strycova of the Czech Republic. The nineteen year old is now on a 12 match winning streak, after also winning the $25,000 event in Sutton last week as a qualifier. Her fine form has also translated to her doubles game; she won the doubles event in Stockholm with rising British star Anna Smith. Larsson reaches a career high ranking of #232 this week and will likely contest her first Grand Slam qualifying event at Roland Garros this spring.
Berri, Australia was the host for the second of two $25,000 grass court events which were being held on the continent this month. In a shocking upset, Aussie Nicole Kriz won the first challenger title of her career by beating Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-4 4-6 7-6. Erakovic, who’s been in fine form this year by reaching the semifinals at a WTA event in Auckland last month and storming through the $25,000 event in Mildura last week, had only lost seventeen games in route to the final and looked to be the overwhelming favorite. However, the Aussie right-hander held her nerve in fighting off match points on the Kiwi’s serve to record her second final set tiebreak win of the tournament. Despite the loss, Erakovic’s inspired play will propel her to a career high ranking of #135 this week. With only a handful of points to defend between now and May, she might be able to improve her ranking enough to be able to contest the first Grand Slam main draw of her career at Roland Garros.
On the futures level, Frenchman Nicholas Coutelot took a small step towards reclaiming his former top 100 status by winning the $15,000 event in Torre Pacheco, Spain. The 31 year old also took the futures event in Murcia the week before. Ricardo Hocevar of Brazil is also on a ten match winning streak with his victories in La Habana, Cuba this week and Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico this week before. On the women’s side, Slovenian Polana Hercog is 11-0 on the year after this week after sweeping the two $10,000 events in Mallorca and winning a match in Fed Cup. The 17 year old is entered in some upcoming challenger events and looks poised to begin breaking through at the next level.
The men will showcase the feature challenger tournament of next week as Fabrice Santoro, competing in what will likely be his last year on tour, leads the field at the $100,000 event in Bensacon, France. On the women’s side, Milagros Sequera of Venezuela returns from a six-month injury layoff as the top seed at the $25,000 event in Clearwater, Florida. Anne Keothavong, the current British number one, will also lead the way at the $25,000 tournament in Capriolo, Italy.
Federer humiliates Björkman at AusOpen
Australian Open 2007 Roger Federer added another victim to his bodycount. This time the victim is Swede Jonas Björkman. With his display Fedex of power he managed to shove headlines such as the riots and the immense heat to the background.
Ofcourse the extreme circumstances of Tuesday was mentioned. The organisation of the Australian Open was forced to move matches to the evening. Larry Scott, CEO of the WTA, indicated that the agreements made about playing tennis under extreme weather circumstances required adjustments.
“The health of the players is top priority. I have been worried about the risks that were taken Tuesday.”
Federer agreed and said that the heat on the courts is unbelieveable and it’s not just the sun but also the heat that comes from under the courts. According to him it feels as if your feet are on fire.
Maybe that’s why, the weather was a little clouded en therefore lesser warm. Federer kept his second round match short against doubles specialist Jonas Björkman. Björkman was unable to take a set against the unstoppable Swiss. The endscore: 6-2, 6-3,6-2.
Federer’s next match is against Russian Mikhail Youzhny who beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei in three sets 7-5,6-4,6-4.