Ginepri Wins @TallyChallenger, @USTA French Open Wildcard
Steen Kirby, Tennis East Coast
Robby Ginepri rolled into Tallahassee this week and killed two birds with one stone as he won the title and earned enough points to secure the USTA French Open wildcard for himself, snatching it away from both Alex Kuznetsov and Daniel Kosakowski, who were previously in the running.
The American veteran outclassed Frank Dancevic 6-3, 6-4, as Dancevic again was left at the altar in Tallahassee, with his second career loss in the tournament finals. Ginepri won on both Har-Tru and indoor hard courts this week, as he overcame Peter Polansky and James Ward indoors, and then beat James McGee on Har-Tru to reach the final. In the opening round, he beat JY Aubone on Har-Tru.
Dancevic beat Antonio Veic indoors, and also Gerald Melzer before taking his talents out to the Har-Tru and defeating Donald Young to reach the final, as he won the key points he needed to in that semifinal.
In doubles, Ryan Agar/Sebastian Bader defeated Bjorn Fratangelo/Mitchell Krueger 6-4, 7-6 as the Americans were denied a clean sweep of the trophies here.
This year’s Tally Challenger was tennis trivia-worthy as I believe this is the first time that a single tournament has been contested at two different venues, on two different surfaces. This was forced by the inclement weather Tallahassee was subjected to most of the week and was not on purpose. We will probably not see a tournament like this anytime soon and it’s been interesting to observe.
Ginepri will now be another American competitor at Roland Garros and he gets to bypass the qualies.
Tennis Atlantic 