Challenger Chat 2019 (Page 2 of 4)

Week 8

Men's

Bangkok, Thailand #2 (80)
This tournament's 15-seed, James Duckworth (27, #169, Australia) had to work hard for this one, but with a couple big retirements in the draw (including two previous Challenger champs, Mager and Laaksonen, as well as 2-seed Tatsuma Ito) as well as an impressive 3rd-set TB win in the semis, Duckworth sails to his 7th career Challenger title and jumps 41 ranking spots!  Duckworth was once a Top 100 player, so it's nice to see him getting back on track as he enters the second half of his professional career.
His vanquished final opponent is yet another Spanish up-and-comer, 14-seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (19, #184), who defeated the 4th, 5th, and 13th seeds here before being straight-setted in the final.

Bergamo, Italy (80)
When you think of a "sinner", you think of someone who needs forgiveness because of mistakes they've made.  Well, here's at least one Sinner who made no mistakes last week: Jannik Sinner (17, #324, Italy) wins the Bergamo Challenger as a Wild Card, ranked outside the Top 500!  Think of the theological implications of this win!
Puns aside, Sinner's last match before this challenger was a 3-set loss to another player outside the Top 500, so there was no indication that he would... well... do THIS.  Not only did Sinner win this tournament, but he won his last 3 matches in it without losing more than 3 games in a set!  He was absolutely BLASTING his opponents!  To add to this amazing achievement, Sinner is the FIRST EVER ATP player born in 2001 to make a Challenger final, much less win it!  His victims include the 9th and 4th seeds, and the runner-up was Roberto Marcora, who has previously been mentioned as the runner up of Budapest (80) just two weeks ago.  Poor Marcora is STILL seeking his first Challenger trophy.
#1-seed Evgeny Donskoy lost in the 3rd round to Stefano Napolitano.

Morelos, Mexico (80)
As if the Bergamo result weren't shocking enough, Morelos was won by a player outside the Top 600!  Not only that, the final itself was very surprising.  Matias Franco Descotte (24, #334, Argentina) barely made the finals, winning FOUR 3-set matches, two of them 7-5 in the 3rd.  His opponent, Gonzalo Escobar (30, #157, Ecuador) had only dropped one set on his way to the final and defeated the 9th and 5th seeds, as well as reigning Burnie champ Steven Diez.  The result of the final?  Descotte annihilates him 1 and 4 for his first ever Challenger trophy and a leap of 278 spots in the ATP rankings.  But wait, there's more!  2019 marks the very beginning of Descotte's Challenger career, as he had never played a tournament at this level in prior years despite already being 24 with a career-high ranking of #312. Escobar, for his part, has played at this level for a while, but not well, having a career Challenger record of 28-53, losing almost 2/3 of his Challenger matches.
#1 seed Pedja Krstin lost his first match, while #2 seed Roberto Quiroz lost to Steven Diez in the QFs.

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Women's

Kyoto, Japan (60)
You'll probably recognize most of the names of the seeds in this one, except for the seed that won the tournament: #7-seed Ylena In-Albon (19, #183, Switzerland)!  She defeated #2-seed Kurumi Nara in the QFs and then #8-seed Zhang Kai-Lin in the final.  Although she won the final 2 and 3, she had to win two 3-setters along the way.  More impressive still is the travel she's done before winning this, as she was in the states playing on clay exactly a month ago, then took the long way to Japan, stopping in Grenoble where she went 1-1.  Although she got one W25 title and four W15 titles last year, winning a W60 is by far her biggest achievement and launches her into the Top 200 for the first time ever.
#1-seed Nao Hibino was defeated by runner-up Zhang in the SFs.

Altenkirchen, Germany (25)
According to the ITF website, this tournament is still played on carpet.  Not even sure what to think about that.
ANYWAY, yet another young teen wins a tournament here, this one China's Shuyue Ma (19, #318).  This is actually Ma's first ever title at ANY level and brings her to her career-high ranking!  We've talked about Ma this year, back in Week 2, when she lost to Lopatetska (now listed in some places as "Dasha Lopatetskaya") in one of the Hong Kong W25s. 
Ma defeated #2-seed Maryna Zanevska in the final here, despite a rankings gap between them of well over 100 spots.
#1-seed Antonia Lottner (herself a successful ITF darling a couple years ago who even started a small WTA breakthrough) lost in the first round here to previously-reported-on Romanian Laura Ioana Andrei, who was here as a Qualifier.

Glasgow, Great Britain (25)
#5-seed Jessika Ponchet (22, #231, France) "did the bizzo" here as all of the other seeds dropped like flies in the QFs or earlier.  TBF to Ponchet, she was the one responsible for #1-seed Anna Zaja's (27, #191, Germany) loss.  Runner-up here was a Georgian named Mariam Bolvadze (21, #315) who hadn't won a pro match all year coming into the tournament.

Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA (25)
#2-seed Nicole Gibbs (25, #139, USA) defeated fellow American and #5-seed Kristie Ahn in the final here, 3 and 3.  This is her 3rd career W25 title, 7th total including three W50 titles.  Gibbs was once as high as #68 and is looking to get back there.  Elsewhere, Claire Liu was in action as the #3 seed but lost in the QFs to Ann Li, an opponent she famously defeated in the 2017 Wimbledon Junior finals.
#1 seed Sachia Vickery lost to Qualifier Usue Arconada (20, #355, USA) in the QFs.

Our W15 winners of the week:
- Victoria Kan (23, 598, Russia), this was her first pro tourney of 2019, only dropped one game in her first two matches combined.
- Lulu Sun (17, #552, Switzerland), our resident friend of Tono and Adunar wins her 2nd W15 in as many weeks, STILL has not dropped a set in that run, although she was pushed to a TB in this latest final, where she dropped one whole point in it.
- Jiaxi Lu (21, #588, China), like Kan is undefeated in 2019, as this was her first tourney of the year. Unlike Kan, this is her first career pro title at any level.
- Magali Kempen (21, #???, Belgium), this is her second W15 of the year, adding to her title reported here in Week 4.  This result gets her to a 10-0 record for 2019.
- Daria Kruzhkova (20, #583, Russia)
- Mirjam Bjorklund (20, #472, Sweden), second title of the year for this (probably) part-time fitness model, now at 17-2 on the year with 12 wins in a row including a singles win in Fed Cup plus another to start Week 9. Had to recover from a 1-6 1st set disaster in the final to get this latest title, the 4th of her career.  Another one of TE's many girlfriends.

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Where Are Last Week's Champs Now?
- Henri Laaksonen is on a two match skid, losing his first match in both Bangkok and the IW Challenger.
- Ugo Humbert made the SFs of Marseille 250! Wow!
- Isabella Shinikova lost in R2 of Altenkirchen to eventual champ Shuyue Ma (see above) but as of this writing has qualified for a W25 in Macon.
- Sesil Karatantcheva lost to Ann Li in R2 of Rancho Santa Fe and also lost in R1 of the IW Challenger to Caty McNally.  Lots of familiar names here!
- Lulu Sun has won another tournament (see above)!
- Anna Morgina has gone 1-2 over two tournaments since last week's title run.
- Kamilla Rakhimova made the SFs of another W15
(all others DNP)

very nice Arvis. Appreciate the info

Week 9

Men's

Indian Wells, California, USA (125)
The results here really read more like an ATP 250, but this tournament really was worth only half of that.  In an impressive and talented field, the #1-seed Kyle Edmund (24, #23, Britain) thumped Andrey Rublev (21, #102, Russia) in the final, 3 and 2.  With the rankings disparity you might expect a result like that, but Edmund was by no means imperious on his way to this result.  Really, this win in the final was easily his best score, after having dropped sets to Yannick Maden and Lloyd Harris on the way.  Could this title have broken Edmund's slump?  Also, how is he still so highly ranked after losing all those AO points?  A great mystery of universe.
Elsewhere, #2-seed Filip Krajinovic lost in R3 to Jason Jung.

Pau, France (90)
The #1-seed here was Gregoire Barrere (25, #121, France), already a Challenger champ once in 2019.  However, in order to get his second he was going to have to go through another 2019 Challenger champ in the semis: #4-seed Alexander Bublik (21, #134, Kazakhstan).  Bublik would take down Barrere in two tight sets and go on to take the title here, defeating unseeded Norbert Gombos (28, #231, Slovakia) in three sets.  After starting his Challenger season going 2-2 (plus losing in the QR1 in Australia), Bublik has now improved to 11-4 at this level on the year.
Gombos, for his part, was once as high as #80 in the world and, on the back of this result, will be looking to improve his ranking steadily for the rest of 2019.
#2-seed Simone Bolelli lost his first match here to Mathias Bourgue.

Yokohama, Japan (80)
This tournament was way the heck over in Japan and worth less points than the other two, so who the heck would want to play here?  Nobody, that's who.  So the top half SF saw a Korean defeat a Japanese, while the bottom half saw... a German defeat an Australian?  Didn't expect that.
But it's true: the final saw Korea's Kwon Soon Woo (21, #170) and Germany's Oscar Otte (25, #144), the tournament's #2-seed, square off for the title.  Although Otte was higher ranked, Kwon hadn't dropped a set the entire tournament and he continued that trend in the final, defeating Otte 6 and 3 for his first career Challenger trophy!
Shockingly, Kwon is actually a contender for the Next Gen finals this year, as he won't turn 22 until December 2nd.
#1-seed Tatsuma Ito lost in R3 to Lee Duck Hee.

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Women's

Indian Wells, California, USA (125)
With a metric ton of ranking points on offer in this one (compared to the other tournaments below, at least) who would rise to the occasion to claim them?  With all the high ranked players here (#1 seed Qiang Wang is ranked #18 in the world) it was actually #14-seed Viktorija Golubic (26, #82, Switzerland) who took the title!  A Challenger Chat update just wouldn't be complete without a Swiss champion somewhere, eh?
She defeated unseeded Jennifer Brady in the final in 3 sets.  That final was the only sets dropped for BOTH players in this tournament.  Inspired play from both of them!  Would have loved to have seen it.  Golubic defeated the #1, #3, and #6 seeds, as well as promising American teen Caty McNally, all in straight sets.  Brady defeated the #2, #11, and #12 seeds, all in straight sets.  What can we expect from these two in Indian Wells?  Brady got direct entry via WC, while Golubic has to play Qualies (because that makes a ton of sense??).  Interestingly, Brady has drawn a Qualifier in her R1 match.  Wouldn't it be something if these two play each other again?  I think I'd root for Golubic to win, just to stick it to the tournament organizers.

Macon, France (25)
This French tournament had a French champion in 2019, and a Qualifier no less!  Myrtille Georges (28, #256) defied the odds and defeated #8-seed Lesley Kerkhove (27, #202, Netherlands) in the final to win her 4th career W25.  The Qualifying tournament here has players play a Super TB when splitting sets, which Georges barely managed to win 10-7 to qualify.  Then, she had to play #5-seed Antonia Lottner in the 2nd round, just barely winning in a 3rd-set TB, 7-5.  After that, it was all smooth sailing as she never once lost more than 4 games in a set on her way to the trophy.  Myrtille is nearly a full 100 ranking spots off her career high, let's see if she can get back there.

Osaka, Japan (25)
The #1-seed here was Ivana Jorovic (21, #107, Serbia) and she won the title.  Hm.  Not that interesting, I guess.  Just before this tournament she qualified for WTA Dubai and even won her R1 match there against Sara Errani.  I guess she wanted to stay match fit, because this tournament is clearly beneath her ability and ranking.  Looking at the results, though, I'd say it was probably a good idea, as she had to play FOUR 3-setters in a row to win the tournament.  This makes her 4th career W25.
Runner-up here was #4-seed Lu Jia-Jing (29, #186, China), who had been 0-3 in 2019 before this run to the final.

Moscow, Russia (25)
Probably one of the hottest players at this level right now, Playford runner-up and Launceston champ Elena Rybakina (19, #194, Kazakhstan) gets yet another 2019 title, defeating Ukrainian qualifier Ganna Poznikhirenko (24, #401) 5 and 0 in the final.  Despite already having a W60 title this year, this tournament wasn't without difficulty for Rybakina, as she was just a handful of points from losing to #8-seed Olga Doroshina (24, #242, Russia) in the semis.

Our W15 winners of the week:
- Victoria Kan (23, #599, Russia) is still undefeated, improving to 9-0 on the year (10-0 if you count the walkover she had in the SFs this past week).  She has only dropped one set in that span.  This makes her 22nd career title.
- Lu Jiaxi (22, #588, China) just like Kan (above) continues to be undefeated; 10-0 with only two dropped sets in 2019.  Both her and Kan were mentioned just last week.  This is Lu's 2nd title of the year and of her lifetime, this one coming on the day she turned 22.
- Anastasia Detiuc (20, #487, Czech) totally slammed all of her opponents until the final, where she came back from 2-6 1st loss to take the 2nd in a TB, and from there took the trophy. Rumor has it she challenged her opponent to try to pronounce her last name, which distracted her opponent enough for her to win the match.
- Clara Tauson (16, #???, Denmark) has been mentioned once before in Challenger Chat 2019, but if you look up her 2019 results, this past week's W15 title run are her first pro wins of the year.  What's the deal?  Here's the answer: she's the reigning Australian Open Girls' Champion!  Nice to see her backing that up with her 2nd career pro title.  Also, take note of her Fed Cup results a few weeks ago: she took Vikhlyantseva to a 1st set TB!  A very promising year for this young woman.

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Where Are Last Week's Champs Now?
- Jannik Sinner won a Futures tournament.
- Mattias Franco Descotte DNP, but has entered a clay Challenger in Santiago, winning his R1 match.
- Ylena In-Albon made the SFs of Osaka, losing in 3 to runner-up Lu Jia-Jing (see above).
- Shuyue Ma retired in R1 of Macon.  Carpet burn, maybe?
- Jessika Ponchet retired in R2 of Macon.
- Nicole Gibbs lost in the QFs of IW 125 to Jennifer Brady.  She has won her QR1 match in IW.
- Victoria Kan won another W15 (see above).
- Lulu Sun DNP, but this week has qualified for a W25 in Mildura, Australia..... which is a grass court tournament.  O__o
- Lu Jiaxi won another W15 (see above).
- Magali Kempen finally ran out of steam and lost in R1 of a W15.
- Daria Kruzhkova lost in R2 of Moscow.
- Mirjam Bjorklund lost in R2 of a W15.

Can't get this quality in-depth reviews anywhere else - Thanks Arvis..!!!

Fascinating. You’re SO good at this.

Indian Wells Qualifiers - WTA

Ysaline Bonaventure
Age: 24
Rank: #144
Country: Belgium
Nickname: "Bon Bon"
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With a 15/6 record for the year, Bonaventure has won at least one match in every tournament she has entered in 2019.  Although she has a 50% or better record on every surface, she prefers clay.  The slower hard courts of Indian Wells could benefit her.  Look for her to beat Townsend (who I can only assume has achieved her ranking of #89 through witchcraft, because it certainly can't be from her tennis*) in straights, then lose to Vekic.

Misaki Doi
Age: 27
Rank: #121
Country: Japan
Nickname: "The Prius"
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Always treading water in her career, Doi is always just barely above .500 in her W/L record.  And surprise: she's 6/6 this year.  Doi prefers quicker, indoor conditions, yet she got probably her two best wins this year to qualify for this tournament.  Perhaps this is the start of a good run of form for her?  Maybe.  More likely she'll lose to Ons Jabeur in R1.

Christina McHale
Age: 26
Rank: #140
Country: USA
Nickname: "The Oldest 26-Year-Old on the Planet"
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It feels like McHale has been hanging around for forever.  But 2019 has, so far, been a decent year for her.  She was a TB away from qualifying for the AO, has a 13/5 record for the year, and delivered two bagels on her way to qualifying here.  Do note, however, that her QR2 win here came against an ailing Zvonareva who retired 6-0, 2-0 down.
Still, look for McHale to upset a struggling Sakkari in 3 sets, then lose to Pavlyuchenkova.

Zhu Lin
Age: 25
Rank: #95
Country: China
Nickname: "The Shoe"
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Our first Top 100 qualifier, Zhu Lin has been all over the outdoor hardcourts in 2019, refusing to play on any other surface thus far and amassing a 17-5 record.  She won a W25 in Singapore at the end of January.  Although she lost in R1 of the IW 125k, she toughed out two 3-setters to qualify for the main event.  Oddsmakers favor her over Barthel in R1, but she'd have to hope for a miracle to upset Keys in R2.

Zarina Diyas
Age: 25
Rank: #94
Country: Kazakhstan
Nickname: "Dripping With Sexiness"
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I really need to think of a better nickname for poor Zarina.  Suggestions?
Diyas could be the most dangerous qualifier in the draw (and I don't mean dangerously attractive).  She started 2019 by losing 9-7 in a 3rd-set TB to Rodina, but since then her losses have all come at the hands of in-form players, while she handles her business against anyone ranked lower than her.  Her defeat of red-hot Nicole Gibbs in QR2 here is one of the more impressive results she's had.  She's favored in her R1 match against WC Jessica Pegula.  However, look for her to give #24-seed Lesia Tsurenko all she can handle in R2.  I like Diyas to get the upset there.

Natalia Vikhlyantseva
Age: 22
Rank: #112
Country: Russia
Nickname: "Natty Vicky"
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Vicky hasn't had the greatest results in 2019, but she did win a main draw match at the AO after qualifying, and also went 3-0 in Fed Cup a few weeks ago.  Double-bageled her hapless QR1 opponent here.  In the main draw, her R1 opponent is...

Priscilla Hon
Age: 20
Rank: #142
Country: Australia
Nickname: "Honey"
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Will be playing Vikhlyantseva in the first round here, who is, generally speaking, quite a bit better at tennis than her.  Don't count on Hon getting the upset here.  Either way, neither her nor Vikhlyantseva are going to be prepared for The Carla Suarez Navarro Experience.
Hon is 7/6 on the year and has won exactly one main draw match.  All six of her other wins have come in qualies.

Caty McNally
Age: 17
Rank: #238
Country: USA
Nickname: "Rally"
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Despite the silly nickname (seriously, what idiot made that one up?) Caty prefers faster courts than what she'll get here.  She's played pro matches since she was 14 and in that time, she has amassed an indoor hard court record of..... *drumroll* ....13/1.  Seriously, she lost her first ever indoor pro match and since then is UNDEFEATED in indoor tournaments.  Good grief.
IW, though, is not an indoor tournament, so she had to fight hard to qualify here.  Qualify she did, though, even defeating Timea Bacsinszky in QR2.  Huge result for our youngest and lowest-ranked Qualifier.  I think she's almost a lock to defeat Bernarda Pera in R1.

Stefanie Voegele
Age: 28
Rank: #109
Country: Switzerland
Nickname: "The Other Swiss Miss"
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Our oldest qualifier, I can't emphasize enough what a bad year Voegele is having.  She had a whopping two wins before defeating Dolehide and Errani here in qualies.  Still, her R1 is very winnable, and then after that is Sloane, who is capable of losing to anyone.

Nao Hibino
Age: 24
Rank: #117
Country: Japan
Nickname: "Hear This"
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Hibino is yet another uber-neutral Japanese player with no clear strengths or weaknesses and whose results always kind of feel like they're totally up to her opponent.  She was 7/7 on the year coming into the qualies here but played fairly well, routining promising American teen Claire Liu, as well as coming back from a set down against Cirstea and delivering her a breadstick and bagel in the process.  Still, her R1 opponent is red hot Jennifer Brady, so expect her to be bundled out of the main draw immediately.

Kateryna Kozlova
Age: 25
Rank: #114
Country: Ukraine
Nickname: "KK"
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Another underachiever, Kozlova was once as high as #62 but hasn't played consistent tennis in over a year.  She's maintained a losing record from 2018 until now.  And despite two very nice, tidy wins in qualies, with her R1 being against Siniakova I think her losing trend will continue for another week at least.

Viktorija Golubic
Age: 26
Rank: #82
Country: Switzerland
Nickname: "Golly"
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Our highest-ranking qualifier, this is the player we were all wondering about.  Where would she land in the draw?  Well, she drew Strycova, who is a good player and by rights should beat her.  However, Golubic has not lost a tennis match since a 3-set QF loss to Zidansek in Hua Hin, on February 1st.  Since then, she has won 8 matches in a row and dropped only two sets in that span.  She has a great shot to get the "upset" against Strycova and then give Halep a stern test in R2.

*that was a joke, Townsend won three ITF titles last year, so she CAN actually play tennis

Last edited by Arvis (Mar. 11, 2019 9:02am)

that might be one of the funniest things ive read in a long time
poor Alex Bolt

Last edited by Johnny_Incognito (Mar. 8, 2019 1:46pm)

My prediction success ratio here isn't particularly great

Fabulous updates, Arvis!
I loved the IW qualifiers synopses and nick names - scratching my head a bit over Moaner Groaner - I mean the initials are there and all, but... well, maybe you know something we don't...

Snigur is a name to remember it seems!
(and you were right about Edmund!)

Ok, Adunar, that makes sense.  I could have sworn I saw a Masarova in Juniors slams the last few years but she definitely wasn't Spanish.  I wonder why she switched?  If she was getting lost in the shuffle of all the talented Swiss players, switching to SPAIN doesn't seem like the best idea...

And thank you, Dwight!  Giron's nickname just came from, as you guessed, his initials and rhyming with "Giron".  It was one of the lamest nicknames in a series of lame nicknames.  Think of a better one for me!

Thanks Arvis. A good read as ever. I do remember Louisa Chirico, so will look out for her now.

No problem, guys, thanks for reading.

I just added pics to the latest post too, now, if anyone is interested.