2013 Maui Challenger Preview
Maui Challenger
USTA Pro Circuit
Maui, Hawaii, USA
January 20-27, 2013
Prize Money: $50,000
As I mentioned earlier this month, I am going to start doing previews and recaps of USTA Pro Circuit Challengers as well as monthly recaps of all the happenings on the ATP Challenger circuit around the world. Here is a preview of the first challenger on American soil this year, with professional action close to the sunny beaches of Maui, Hawaii!
Top 8 Seeds
1: Go Soeda
2: Tatsuma Ito
3: Michael Russell
4: Tim Smyczek
5: Alex Bogomolov
6: Denis Kudla
7: Thiago Alves
8: Ryan Sweeting
A lot of familiar names here and players who participated in either AO qualifying or the early rounds of the main draw.
First round matchups to watch:
Denis Kudla vs. Daniel Kosakowski
If you regularly visit this site, I’m sure you will be quite familiar with both Kudla and Kosakowski, two promising young Americans who have been working their way around the challenger circuit, the AO wild card and grand slam qualifying. Kudla is at a career high ranking of 136, while Kosakowski, who is also 20 years old, is over 100 spots below him at 256. This is always an interesting match.
Donald Young vs. Michael Russell
Two of the more familiar names in American tennis will meet in this one. The respectable grinder Russell remains just inside the top 100 at the age of 34 and comes off a 1stround loss in Australia. He takes on D Young, who is still trying to get his game together again after showing some slightly positive signs to start the year including making the final round of AO qualies. Russell won both of their meetings last year and he still has the edge here.
Top Half:
Top 75 player Go Soeda opens with American wild card Dennis Lajola and then will get either Denis Zivkovic or wild card Petr Michnev. In the quarters, he could draw Bradley Klahn, who opens with the still struggling Ryan Sweeting, while Austin Krajicek and Jonathan Eysseric of France are also options.
The tenacious Tim Smyczek comes off a positive showing in Melbourne and will open with Tsung-Hua Yang of Taipei. Afterward, he may get an AO WC final rematch with Rhyne Williams, who also comes off a positive showing in Melbourne and opens with former NCAA champ Devin Britton. Britton hasn’t lived up to expectations as a pro so far. A Williams-Smyczek rematch could be quite a battle between two in form players.
Top 150 player Thiago Alves of Brazil opens with a qualifier, then will get a tough ask in the form of Steve Johnson, who also played in Melbourne. Johnson opens with a qualifier.
This is a stacked top half filled of in-form Americans and the consistent Soeda.
Bottom Half:
Soeda’s countryman and AO 2nd round participant Tatsuma Ito will play former top 50 player Mischa Zverev. Ito would get a a qualifier or Suk-Young Jeong of South Korea in the second round. AO qualifier Alex Bogomolov, who opens with Michael McClune, could be Ito’s quarterfinal opponent. Peter Polansky of Canada and wild card Ma Rong of China are also options.
The winner of Kosakowski/Kudla will get Tennys Sandgren or Blaz Rola of Slovakia, before doing battle with the Russell/Young winner. Alex Kuznetsov and a qualifier are also options.
I will not do a dark horse for challengers, since most everybody at a challenger can usually be considered a dark horse, excluding the very top seeds.
Predictions:
Semis:
Soeda d. Williams
Ito d. Russell
Kudla, Sandgren or Young could also get out of the bottom half while Smyczek could make it out of the top half. You have to go with the consistent Japanese players here, though.
Final:
Soeda d. Ito
I will go with the higher ranked Soeda here, though Ito won their only pro match against each other last year on clay. They know each other’s games very well and there will not be many surprises.
—Steen Kirby
Tennis Atlantic 
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