Re: Challenger Chat 2019
Week 7
Men's
Bangkok, Thailand (80)
Swiss journeyman Henri Laaksonen (26, #121) is truly in better form than he's been in in years. He didn't let his painfully-close losses in Davis Cup discourage him, but rather he brought a confidence into this Challenger tourney that saw him take the trophy. And he defeated well-known names along the way: Stephane Robert, Thiemo de Bakker, Go Soeda, James Duckworth, and finally at the end a resurgent Dudi Sela. This makes Challenger trophy #4 for Henri, who was seeded #3 here.
#2 seed Tatsuma Ito retired with injury, to Sela, in the semis, while #1 seed Gunneswaran lost his opening match to unseeded American JC Aragone.Cherbourg, France (80)
In a shocking twist of Challenger competence, new Cherbourg champ Ugo Humbert (20, #75, France) not only won this tournament as the #1 seed, but did it by defeating other seeded players in every match besides his opener and the final! Even then, his final opponent was Steve Darcis (34, #283, Belgium) who is playing really well this year and also defeated every possible high seed on his way to the final (including #2 seed Yannick Maden and #3 seed Stefano Travaglia).
While he's still struggling to make a mark on the Tour level, this makes Humbert's 4th Challenger trophy and he's not even 21.---
Women's
Shrewsbury, Great Britain (60)
While last week's Grenoble champ Vitalia Diatchenko (28, #97, Russia) far outranked her opponents there, entering the tournament seems to have been the right choice. She fought through some yips in the early rounds there before rounding into form to take the cup, and the result was that she had a much easier time winning here at the more lucrative Shewsbury tournament. She was #2 seed here and yet didn't drop a set until the final, where she came back from a set down to defeat #1 seed Yanina Wickmayer. This gets Diatchenko into the Top 100 again and brings her impressive title count up to a whopping 16. There are rumors that she is dating our very own TennisElbow, so we all have a rooting interest here.Trnava, Slovakia #2 (25)
While last week's Trnava W25 was won by a familiar face, this one had two unseeded players competing in the final. The result was Isabella Shinikova (27, #253, Bulgaria) quite easily defeating Denisa Allertova (25, #363, Czech). You may remember Allertova, as she was once close to Top 50. She seems to have had injury struggles. Shinikova was once as high as #133. This makes five W25 titles in Shinikova's career, winning ALL of the other four in 2016 alone. Perhaps she can replicate her 2016 campaign in 2019? Or maybe do better?Surprise, Arizona, USA (25)
Our winner here has been on the pro tennis scene for so long, and so notably, that her highest ranking was #35 back in 2005. At the time she achieved the #35 ranking, our runner up had not even been born yet.
Sesil Karatantcheva (29, #232, Bulgaria) defeated 14-year-old American Cori "Coco" Gauff (#579) in three sets to take her first title since 2017, and only her second title in the past 7 years. As much of a story as that is, Gauff is really what's impressive here. At her tender age and low ranking, she got into the draw as a special "Junior Entry". Despite this, she defeated the #4 and #8 seeds, as well as Olga Govortsova in the semis. She even took a set off Sesil in the final. I really think this young lady is the next big thing in the future of the WTA.Our W15 winners of the week:
- Lulu Sun (17, #552, Switzerland, born in New Zealand, acquainted with both Tono and Adunar, probably?). First career title, dropped no sets, lost no more than 4 games in a set.
- Anna Morgina (27, #611, Russia). 12th career title, literally all twelve have come in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Do note that there are several Sharm El Sheikh tournaments every year.
- Kamilla Rakhimova (17, #???, Russia). First career title. Won 16 pro matches last year, already up to 6 wins this year.
- Marta Lesniak (30, #???, Poland). This is her 10th career title, with her first two coming in 2004, and the other eight coming after 2016. Apparently she quit tennis after 2005 because of some injuries and didn't officially restart her career until 11 years later. Incredible.
- Maryna Chernyshova (19, #569, Ukraine). 7th career title, 8-1 match record on the year.---
Where Are Last Week's Champs Now?
- Alexander Bublik lost his opener in Cherbourg but is set to play his opener in Bergamo tomorrow.
- Corentin Moutet lost his opener in Bangkok.
- Vitalia Diatchenko won another tournament (see above)!
- Lucie Hradecka qualified for Dubai but lost in R1 to Belinda Bencic.
- Yuki Naito lost in a W15 final to Maryna Chernyshova (see above), but then finally ran out of gas at another W15 this week, losing in R1 in a 3rd-set TB.
- Lara Michel lost in R1 of another W15.
(all others DNP)
Great work Arvis, I'm a fan
King Droid 15 Naboo Cup 14 Lord Vader- RU