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Sunday, May 7, 2017

Brengle and Sandgren Claim Pro Circuit Titles; King Wins Futures in Mexico; Former College Stars Claim ATP Doubles Titles; Escobedo Qualifies in Madrid

Tennys Sandgren went from finalist last week to champion this week, while Madison Brengle collected her second straight title today at USTA Pro Circuit events 100 miles apart.

Sandgren avoided a third set tiebreaker and a third set period for the first time in three days at the $75,000 ATP Challenger in Savannah Georgia, beating unseeded Joao Pedro Sorgi of Brazil 6-4, 6-3 in the final.  For Sandgren, who lost in last week's $75,000 Tallahassee Challenger final, it was the second Challenger title of 2017 and the third of his career.  Although Sandgren had clinched the USTA's French Open wild card two days ago, he put an exclamation point on that competition by going on to win the title, and his ATP ranking will move to a career-high around 114, setting him up for a possible main draw berth at Wimbledon as well.  

The doubles title in Savannah went to top seeds Peter Polansky of Canada and Neal Skupski of Great Britain, who defeated No. 3 seeds Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and Mitchell Krueger 4-6, 6-3, 10-1.


Brengle, who won the title at the $60,000 Charlottesville Virginia tournament last Sunday, lost her first set in her streak today, but came back to defeat unseeded Danielle Collins 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.  Collins led the top seed 6-4, 2-0, but Brengle took 10 of the next 11 games and held on for the win. Collins managed to get only 30 percent of her first serves in the final set and was broken all five times she served.  According to this The Post and Courier article, Brengle and Collins have been traveling and training together at IMG and will head back to Bradenton together after today's match.

Alexa Guarachi Mathison of Chile and Emina Bektas won the doubles title, beating 2013 NCAA champions Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 5-7, 6-3, 10-5. Bektas, the former Michigan star, has now won two $60,000 doubles titles in the past month.  It's first title at that level for Guarachi Mathison, the former Alabama standout, who has won 11 doubles title total since graduating in 2013.

Former Georgia Tech star Kevin King won his first singles Futures title since 2015 at the $15,000 tournament in Villahermosa Mexico, but it wasn't easy for the 26-year-old left-hander. A qualifier, King needed two hours and 21 minutes to defeat No. 4 seed Ivan Endara of Ecuador 7-5, 7-5, adding a singles championship to the doubles title he won on Saturday. Including qualifying, King went 12-0 in the tournament.

At the $15,000 Tampa Futures, No. 2 seed Facundo Mena of Argentina won the title, beating No. 3 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-0.

There were three ATP doubles finals today and former college stars won two of them.  In Estoril, former LSU standout Michael Venus of New Zealand teamed with Ryan Harrison to beat David Marrero and Tommy Robredo of Spain 7-5, 6-2 in the final.  For Harrison, who turned 25 today, and the 29-year-old Venus, who has concentrated primarily on doubles on the tour, it was their first title as a team, having played together on the Tour just twice prior to this week.  In Munich, 2008 NCAA doubles champion Rob Farah and his partner Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia won their second title of 2017 and their tenth ATP title, beating Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin of France 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Qualifying for the ATP Masters in Madrid concluded today, with Ernesto Escobedo reaching the main draw with a 6-3, 6-2 win over 17-year-old Nicola Kuhn of Spain. Escobedo was featured in a recent Sports Illustrated article here.  Jared Donaldson lost his final round qualifying match to Denis Istomin, but got into the main draw as a lucky loser. Escobedo plays Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the first round, while Donaldson has drawn qualifier Adrian Mannarino of France. Jack Sock, seeded 14th, and Ryan Harrison are the other American men in the draw.  Madrid is a combined event, and there were six American women in the WTA draw, four of whom won their first round matches: Alison Riske, CoCo Vandeweghe, CiCi Bellis and Lauren Davis.  Madison Keys[9] and Christina McHale lost their first round matches.

9 comments:

College Fan said...

How about the fact that Sandgren saved match points 1st Rd in Sarasota vs Opelka. What a turnaround! It's amazing how 1 or 2 points can change the trajectory of the next month or two. Congrats to Tennys.

Upcoming NCAA Matches said...

In Austin, Texas, Tulane's Green Waves will play the Washington Huskies at 11 am on Friday, May 12

Update from Madrid said...

Nick Mahut beats 14th seed Sock in Madrid...first round..7-6(4) in third

Play Ball! said...

Here is the Washington Huskies Lineup for the Upcoming 2017 NCAA's Div 1 Mens Tennis Tournament:
http://web1.ncaa.org/tennis/exec/lineup?doWhat=view&viewOrg=756&sportCode=MTE&academicYear=2017&division=1

Here is the NCAA's Link for the Lineups of All the Teams Participating in the 2017 NCAA's Div 1 Mens Tennis Tournament:
http://web1.ncaa.org/tennis/exec/lineup?doWhat=listing&sportCode=MTE&division=1&fromLink=Y

Go Green Wave said...

@Play Ball, how does it feel to be a huge fan of by far the worst team that got into the NCAA tournament this year, and probably the worst team in history as there were something like 4 teams ranked ahead of them? I'm pretty confident that a team ranked as low as #49 has never made it to the tournament before. But, good luck to you and your team!

Play Ball! said...

Jackson State is the lowest ranked team in the NCAA's at # 198...8-20. Maybe Portland can add them to their schedule next year:)

Go Green Wave said...

@play ball, it was obvious that I was only including at large bids and not automatic conference winner bids, so you're going to have trouble finding a non-conference winner team in NCAA tournament history that got in at large that was lower than Washington at #49.

But you are obviously not a Washington fan anyway, just a troll sadist who is trying to get some cheap kicks out of enraging Portland fans by rubbing it in. That's why you're conspicuously posting the starting time of just one match, which is one of the least signficant matches in the whole tournament. I hope you're proud of yourself.

perspective said...

@Green Wave - not saying Portland is undeserving or deserving, but just about every year there are flips throughout the selections, including the last spot. To give you some perspective Oregon was selected for the last spot in late 90s and was ranked somewhere around No. 60. I'm sure a good case could be made for Portland in the tournament, no argument here, but when there's a direct win involved I don't think it's the worst of injustices.

Go Green Wave said...

@perspective, thanks for your message. At least you're not a troll like play ball.