A LOOK BACK Latrobe City Traralgon Challenger (Traralgon, Australia): Top seed Jordan Thompson enjoyed the taste of victory on home soil in Traralgon, lifting his fourth ATP Challenger Tour trophy of the year. Thompson downed Grega Zemlja 6-1, 6-2 in 65 minutes, firing seven aces and converting five of 15 break points. The Aussie extends his win streak to 10 straight, following a title run in Ho Chi Minh City two weeks ago. He is one of four players to win four or more titles this year, joining Facundo Bagnis (5), Gerald Melzer (4) and Yen-Hsun Lu (4). "It feels great," said Thompson. "I always love playing in Australia. It's good to make the final, like I did last year,...
Indian players take up 18 of the 32 main draw spots at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Pune, but the youngest player competing in drew plenty of headlines locally for his milestone win. Sixteen-year-old Dhruv Sunish made the most of his wild card with an opening-round victory over fellow Indian Siddharth Vishwakarma, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. The win gave Sunish, competing in only the fourth pro event of his career, his first ATP Challenger Tour win. The teenager showed plenty of fighting spirit in his second-round loss on Wednesday to top seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia. Despite the loss, Sunish said he was grateful to see how he stacked up against an experienced player. “Playing against Donskoy was an...
After leading the way for tennis in India for more than 20 years, Leander Paes is now beginning to focus some of his energy on the rising stars of the sport in his country. The 43-year-old doubles specialist competed in a Challenger at home for the first time since 1997 at this week’s $50,000 event in Pune. Paes teamed up with fellow Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan in the doubles draw. Although he had the option to compete with a higher-ranked player, the former World No. 1 in doubles said it was important to help other Indian players competing in Challengers. "I could have brought any other regular partner with whom I play on the ATP World Tour, but to support Ram...
Norbert Gombos was already eliminated in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, France, before main draw action even began. But with the help of a withdrawal, the Slovakian made an improbable run from Lucky Loser to tournament champion. When #NextGen star Quentin Halys was unable to take the court, the 26-year-old Gombos took his place in the draw and found his top form. He defeated fellow Slovakian and second seed Lukas Lacko in a third-set tie-break in the quarter-finals, then prevailed over Yannik Reuter of Belgium in the championship match to win the biggest Challenger title of his career. “I was disappointed I couldn’t make it into the main draw there after a good run in Asia, but...