Charlottesville is a great town. The only problem is that to get there from Baltimore, you have to drive through congested Northern Virginia. Thanks to the sprawl, I missed the Alex Kuznetsov/Brad Klahn match, but it went three sets. Then, Izak Van der Merwe won a close three setter over JP Smith and you could hear the officials and tournament staff worried about a long night. Those fears dissipated when Alex Bogomolov bested Rhyne Williams in straights and Tournament Director Ron Manila decided to play the back-to-back show court doubles matches simultaneously on separate courts.
That brought on Kudla and Devvarman, which may go down as the best-attended match of the Challenger. It was a purely partisan crowd for UVa alum Somdev Devvarman, but they were very polite to Denis Kudla, a Virginia resident himself.
Denis was less polite to Devvarman and dominated the 58 minute match. “Dominate” and “58 minutes” really are redundant.
This was the first day of the tournament where a seed did not fall, and all four of these semifinalists could grab the 90 ATP points for being crowned the champ.
Great fans and a wonderful staff made this an enjoyable day of tennis. Perhaps the best thing a blogger could ever expect is a walk-off interview within seconds after the player wins a match. On the ATP and WTA events of a larger scale, media requests often have to wait an hour or more, while players shower, massage or eat. Not on the Challenger circuit. You get them sweaty and out-of-breath, but both the blogger and the player can get out of the facility and get ready for tomorrow. That video interview will be up tomorrow.
The semifinals are set at the Charlottesville Men’s Pro Challenger and the Order of Play is posted below.
Friday, November 2 – RESULTS
Men’s Singles – Quarterfinals [2] Alex Bogomolov Jr., Russia d Rhyne Williams, United States, 7-6(0), 6-0 [8] Denis Kudla, United States d [WC] Somdev Devvarman, India, 6-2, 6-0
Izak Van der Merwe, South Africa d John-Patrick Smith, Australia, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 Alex Kuznetsov, United States d Bradley Klahn, United States, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-1 Men’s Doubles – Quarterfinals [WC] Jarmere Jenkins, United States / Jack Sock, United States d [1] Treat Huey, Philippines / Bobby Reynolds, United States, 6-4, 6-3
[2] John Peers, Australia / John-Patrick Smith, Australia d Tim Smyczek, United States / Ryan Sweeting, United States, 6-3, 6-4
Saturday, November 3 – SCHEDULE
Court 7 – starting at 1 PM
Alex Kuznetsov, United States vs [2] Alex Bogomolov Jr., Russia, followed by
Izak Van der Merwe, South Africa vs [8] Denis Kudla, United States, followed by
[WC] Jarmere Jenkins, United States / Jack Sock, United States vs Alex Kuznetsov, United States / Mischa Zverev, Germany, followed by
Denis Kudla, United States / Jesse Levine, United States vs [2] John Peers, Australia / John-Patrick Smith, Australia
–S. Fogleman
Tennis Atlantic 
Return Serve?