David Guez

2015 Kolkata, Kyota and Cherbourg Challenger Previews & Predictions
Chris De Waard, Tennis Atlantic

Another week of clayless tennis on the Challenger tour, with tournaments taking place in India and France on hardcourt and on carpet in Japan.

Emami Kolkata Open 2015

ATP Challenger Tour
23-28 February 2015
Kolkata, India
Prize Money: $50,000

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: James Duckworth (112)
2: Alexander Kudryavtsev (129)
3: Ruben Bemelmans (144)
4: Somdev Devvarman (153)
5: Luke Saville (161)
6: Radu Albot (165)
7: Alex Bolt (167)
8: Kimmer Coppejans (183)

The last direct acceptance is Miki Jankovic, ranked 402nd.

First round match-up to watch

(4) Somdev Devvarman – Ramkumar Ramanathan

Last week’s New Delhi winner might be in trouble here against his almost ten-years-younger countryman. It is yet to be seen if one good week against relatively weak opposition is going to break Devvarman’s slump and Ramanathan showed last year that he can handle Devvarman. In Chennai, Ramanathan won 4-6 6-3 6-4 and he has a good shot at pulling it off again here.

Top Half

As I have mentioned in my recap, it’s dangerous to back top seed James Duckworth at the moment. He started a slump in sight of the top 100 and it’s hard to predict when he gets his mind straight again. His countryman Alex Bolt might trouble him enough in the quarterfinal to take him out, for example. In the second section Ruben Bemelmans has been displaying good form as of late, which should take him to the semi-final here, taking out his countryman Kim Coppejans in the quarterfinal in the process.

Bottom Half

Yuki Bhambri is the most dangerous player here, despite being unseeded. He seems to really struggle with Devvarman, so if he can avoid him in the semi-final I can see him taking down the title. In the quarterfinal he potentially faces second seed Alexander Kudryavtsev again, whom he took out in the first round last week. I can’t see anyone other than one of these three going through to the final, with Bhambri as the favorite to do so.

Predictions

Semis:

Bemelmans d. Duckworth
Bhambri d. Saville

Final:

Bhambri d. Bemelmans

This would be a rematch of the New Delhi semi-final of last week, when Bhambri won 4-6 6-3 7-5.

Shimadzu All Japan Indoor

ATP Challenger Tour
23 February – 1 March 2015
Kyoto, Japan
Prize Money: $50,000

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: Go Soeda (82)
2: Tatsuma Ito (94)
3: Yuichi Sugita (131)
4: John Millman (149)
5: Hiroki Moriya (158)
6: Ze Zhang (180)
7: Michal Przysiezny (185)
8: Benjamin Mitchell (212)

The last direct acceptance is Yusuke Watanuki, ranked 505th. 38 year old Takao Suzuki received a wild card. The oldtimer played his first Challenger in 1992 and reached his career high ranking of #102 in 1998.

First round match-up to watch

(5) Hiroki Moriya – Matthew Ebden

Ebden has been regaining some form after his enormous losing streaks of last year, but is still far from the level that saw him reach the top 70 a year ago. However, his two meetings against Moriya in 2013 ended in two easy straight set victories, so perhaps he will take confidence from that. Moriya isn’t in good shape himself either, losing in the first round of all four of his Challengers this year, two weeks ago in Launceston even to a player ranked outside of the top 1000.

Top Half

It’s hard to look past top seed Go Soeda here. He lives for these Asian events, and especially in Japan, he is really strong. The seed in his half, Michal Przysiezny, is potentially very strong on this rapid surface, but in his current state he is a long shot. In the second section #6 seed Ze Zhang has an excellent opportunity to reach the semi-final, especially considering #3 seed Yuichi Sugita has been struggling with his form and injuries.

Bottom Half

I suspect this will come down to an encounter between #4 seed John Millman and #2 seed Tatsuma Ito for a place in the final. Millman has been out for a couple of weeks with injury, so he might be struggling in the early stages of the tournament, but he has been in excellent form lately and I actually think he can make the top 100 this year. Nevertheless, the Japanese tend to have these events on lockdown, so Ito surely won’t go down easily. If anyone can do it, it’s Millman, however, as he closed off 2014 by winning a Challenger in Yokohama. They have played each other twice in 2013, splitting the matches, with Ito winning in five sets at the Australian Open, while Millman won in straight sets at Brisbane. In 2012 they faced each other three times on the Challenger circuit, with Ito winning all the encounters.

Predictions

Semis:

Soeda d. Zhang
Millman d. Ito

Final:

Millman d. Soeda

Challenger La Manche – Cherbourg

ATP Challenger Tour
23 February – 1 March 2015
Cherbourg, France
Prize Money: €42,500

Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)

1: Kenny De Schepper (103)
2: Steve Darcis (115)
3: Andreas Beck (117)
4: Farrukh Dustov (118)
5: Nicolas Mahut (119)
6: Benoit Paire (121)
7: Norbert Gombos (124)
8: Niels Desein (155)

The last direct acceptance is Tristan Lamasine, ranked 230th.

First round match-ups to watch

(1) Kenny De Schepper – David Guez

Upset alert. These two faced each other in the final qualifying round of Marseille last week and Guez triumphed, 6-2 2-6 6-3. He continued his form into the main draw, where he pushed world #35 Jeremy Chardy to three sets, 6-4 3-6 2-6. All in all, I would say there is about a 50% chance we will lose the top seed in the first match.

(3) Andreas Beck – Taro Daniel

Daniel is related to the previous story as well, losing to De Schepper in the second qualifying round, 7-5 6-3. This will be his first Challenger of the year, trying his luck in ATP qualifying events before, but only succeeding in Montpellier. Beck hasn’t been very successful either in his prior tournaments this year, making this another possibility for a seed to bomb out in the first round.

Top Half

Given De Schepper’s first round draw, he isn’t a solid bet to go far here. Benoit Paire is in his quarter, so even if he does make it to the quarterfinal stage, he is likely to go out against his flamboyant countryman. Paire reached second rounds at Montpellier and Marseille, together with taking down a Challenger in Bergamo, so he looks to have regained a big chunk of his pre-injury form. In the bottom section, Farrukh Dustov will show if he can perform in back to back weeks after winning the Wroclaw Challenger and reaching the top 100 for the first time. Nicolas Mahut is also still a competitor to take into account.

Bottom Half

Second seed Steve Darcis looks like the safest bet to reach the final. He lost to an on-fire Dustov last week, and only very nearly, but is unlikely to encounter that kind of opposition until the final. However, Daniel Brands qualified into this event and potentially faces Darcis in the quarterfinal, which could be very dangerous if the German brings his pre-injury form. In the other section, Niels Desein has an excellent opportunity to build on his first Challenger title in Glasgow and reach the semi-final.

Predictions

Semis:

Paire d. Dustov
Darcis d. Desein

Final:

Paire d. Darcis

Chris De Waard (Challenger Tour Finals)

2015 Glasgow Challenger Day 3 Report: Bemelmans fends off Pavlasek, Naomi Broady advances
Niall Clarke, Tennis Atlantic

Another cold day in Glasgow meant another day of tennis for me to enjoy. Despite the freezing temperature outside, there was a lot of hot action in the Scotstoun leisure centre today.

Firstly I went to court 4 to see our own Conny Perrin take on the number five seed Ysaline Bonaventure. It was a fairly hot tempered affair, which contrasted nicely to the weather. Bonaventure’s lefty serve and flat groundstrokes were enough to see her take the lead in the opening set, but at 5-3 the Belgian failed to serve it out. Perrin tried to use her variety to wrestle control from her opponent, but soon enough the Swiss found herself a set down. Bonaventure continued that momentum in the second set securing an early break whilst her coach cheered her on next to me. Both players were very much amped up during the match. Both players threw their rackets to the floor in frustration, and had words with the umpire about questionable line calls. Bonaventure however managed to keep her cool enough to serve out the match. 6-3,6-4 being the final result to the Belgian who was a bit too powerful for Perrin.

Speaking after the match Perrin told me that it was a ‘difficult’ match and that Bonaventure adapted well to everything she tried. Conny also told me that the courts are playing very slow, so it was difficult to hit through her opponent.

Next up was the number one seed in the mens singles Alexsandr Nedovyesov vs Peter Torebko of Germany. The Kazakh’s possessed the bigger weapons, but he was also wildly inconsistent. The German had his own struggles on serve, with his percentage being 35 for the whole match. There were plenty of breaks in this one, as both players struggled to really get a grip on serve, the most significant example coming at the end of the first set. Nedovyesov served for the set but couldn’t convert, and then in a reverse of fortunes Torebko had his chance to serve for it at 6-5, but the German also failed to close out the set. Therefore we were treated to a tiebreaker, which was largely dominated by the Kazakh, who’s forehand and ability at the net proved too much for his opponent. Tempers flared during the match with both men getting visually frustrated because they couldn’t hold on to serve and build an advantage. In the end Nedovyesov gained the upper-hand and earned the chance to serve for the match. In what became the familiar theme in this match, the top seed struggled closing it out, but In the end he got the job done to take the match 7-6,6-4.

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It was back to the women’s for my second viewing of young Brit Isabelle Wallace. The 17 year old however fell easily to fellow qualifier Chloe Paquet 6-1,6-1. A big lesson for the young Brit.

I stuck around to see an all British clash as third seed Naomi Broady faced Tara Moore in the women’s singles. The big serving Broady raced into a 5-1 lead in the opening set, and was looking like she was going to run away with the match. Moore had other plans however, and she battled back to get the score to 5-3 before eventually losing the set. The second went pretty much the same, with Broady’s aggressiveness getting the better of her more defensive opponent. The third seed raced into a 5-2 lead and a chance to serve out the match. What proceeded was by far the longest game of the match as match points and break points came and went like the sun in Britain. Broady remained strong enough to seal the match 6-3,6-2, but it wasn’t as easy as the scoreline suggests.

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Speaking post match Broady said: “Tara is a really good player, and we know each other’s game really well. So when it gets down to the last few points and you know you are close, you start over thinking it a little bit. She also had nothing to lose in the end, so she decided to go for her shots a little more and it made it difficult for me”

Broady made the main draw at Wimbledon in 2014, making it to round two before being defeated by Caroline Wozniacki. She spoke of her experience: “It was amazing. Caroline is the same age as me, and I have known her since juniors, and she’s such a great player, so I was happy we had a reasonably competitive match. I managed to play on court 1 too which was incredible, as I had the home fans behind me. Most players think Wimbledon is the best grand slam, but it’s a bit more special for the British players.”

The final men’s singles match on court six was an interesting match between Adam Pavlasek and Ruben Bemelmans. Pavlasek competed in the Hopman cup for the Czech Republic, and Bemelmans competed in the Australian Open, losing to Ivo Karlovic in the first round. The Czech was under pressure in his first service game, but he pulled through and broke his Belgian opponent in the next game. Pavlasek held serve for the rest of the set to secure it 6-3. You got the sense that Bemelmans was working his way into the match more and more as the first set went along, and in the second set he started to turn the match around in his favour. The Belgian took it 6-3 with some impressive shots helping him level the score. Pavlasek however didn’t let losing the lead get to him, because he soon re-established it in the third set; breaking Bemelmans to love at 2-1. The Czech held out to serve for the match, but Bemelmans kept fighting and soon found himself level on the scoreboard. It was only a few games later when the turnaround was complete, as he took the third set 7-5 to complete the closest encounter I have witnessed this week.

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Whilst Pavlasek and Bemelmans were going at it on court 6, an upset was brewing on court eight. Number two seed, Michal Przysiezny was in the top 100 a year ago, but 12 months on, he has found himself losing in the opening round of a challenger event. France’s David Guez came from behind to defeat the Pole 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in what looked like a thrilling encounter.

Other results in the men’s singles included Britain’s Daniel Cox beating Matwe Middelkoop in straight sets, 6-4,6-1. Axel Michon also finds himself in the second round after Yan Marti retired from a set and two breaks down. There were also wins for Julian Reister, Niels Desein and Jonathan Eysseric.

In the women’s, there were victories for top seed Maryna Zanevska and number two seed Kristyna Pliskova.

I’ll be back for my final day in Glasgow, hoping for some more great tennis.

Niall Clarke (Sofia)