Mmoh Wins Big in Kzoo & Titles Galore on the Pro Circuit

Mmoh’s Week at the Zoo:

Pro Circuit Update

#551 Petr Michnev (Hawaii Pacific ’14) won his second career Futures singles title with a win over #419 Gregoire Jacq at the $10K Slovakia F3 Futures in Slovenska Lupca. Michnev went down an early break in the first but broke back twice to go up 5-2. Jacq held, broke at love, and held again to even it up at 5-5. Michnev held from 40/15 and then broke from 30/40 to take the set 7-5. The second set stayed on serve until Michnev broke in a two-deuce game to go up 4-2 and then he broke again in a one-deuce game to seal the 7-5, 6-2 win.

Michnev also made the doubles final on Sunday but he and Pavel Nejedly fell 6-1, 6-4 to Gregoire Jacq and Nik Razborsek.

#336 Dragos Dima, who spent a semester at Cornell in the fall of 2012, won his fifth Futures singles title of the year with a win over #311 Hernan Casanova in the finals of the $25K Romania F12 Futures in Iasi. Dima broke Casanova in a one-deuce game to go up 3-2 in the first and then broke in a five-deuce game to go up 5-2. Dima served out the opening set from 40/30 to take it 6-2 and then after he went up 3-0 in the second Casanova threw in the towel and retired.

Samantha Harris (Duke Jr) won her first pro title at the ITF $10K in Las Palmas De Gran Canaria, Spain. Harris got in as a wild card and beat #842, #504, #605, #496, and then won a 3 hour and 16 minute thriller over #399 Fatma Al Nabhani 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(7). Harris trailed 2-0 in the second set before rallying to take the set and then trailed 4-0 in the third before pulling it out in a tiebreak. Here was a recap from the tournament host site.

Picture Via Lawebdeltenis.Net

#423 Cameron Norrie (TCU Jr) made his first career Challenger final at the $100K in Aptos, California but he came up short falling 6-3, 6-4 to the top seed #80 Daniel Evans. Norrie picks up 65 ATP points and should enter the top 300 when the new rankings come out on Monday.

#429 Matija Pecotic (Princeton ’13) had a nice week in Canada but fell in the semifinals 6-4, 7-6(8) to #209 Peter Polansky at $75K Gatineau Challenger. Pecotic picked up 33 points and should move up to around 360 in next week’s rankings.

Doubles

Purav Raja (Loyola Marymount ’04) and Divij Sharan won the doubles title at the ATP 250 in Los Cabos with a 7-6(4, 7-6(3) win over Ken Skupski (LSU ’07) and Jonathan Erlich. It was doubles title number eight for the Raja/Sharan team but the first at the ATP level.

Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) and Tucker Vorster (Ole Miss ’11) won their first career Challenger doubles title with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 1-0 (8) win over Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA ’16) and Ben McLachlan (Cal ’14) in the finals of the $100K Aptos Challenger. It was Scholtz/Vorster’s seventh doubles title as a team.

Sander Gille (East Tennessee State ’12) and Joran Vliegen (East Carolina ’14) won their first career Challenger doubles title with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Tomasz Bednarek and Roman Jebavy at the $42K in Trnava, Slovakia. It was the pairs 10th doubles title of the year and 18th of their career.

Dennis Uspensky (Wake Forest Soph) and Rob Galloway (Wofford ’15) won the doubles title at the Spain F25 with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Ryota Kishi and Yusuke Watanuki. It was Uspensky’s first career pro title while it was Galloway’s third doubles title.

Dusty Boyer (Nebraska ’16) and Lukas Ollert (Auburn ’15) won the Austria F5 doubles title with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Duje and Mate Delic. It was the first career pro title for both Boyer and Ollert.

Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (North Carolina ’12) and Jonathan Eysseric won the Italy F24 doubles title with a 7-6(2), 2-6, 1-0 (4) win over Zdenek Kolar and Bastian Malla.

Victor Cornea (MTSU/Texas Tech ’15) and Victor Anagnastopol won the doubles title at the Romania F12 with a 6-1, 3-6, 1-0 (6) win over Petru-Alexandru Luncanu and Vladyslav Manafov. It was Cornea’s ninth career doubles title and third with Anagnastopol.

JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) and Jarryd Chaplin (Tennessee ’14) made it to the finals at the $75K Gatineau Challenger before falling 6-3, 6-1 to Tristan Lamasine and Franko Skugor.

Markus Kerner (SMU Sr) and Robbie Mudge (NC State ’15) made it to the doubles final at the Finland F2 before going down 6-1, 6-1 to Daniel Appelgren and Patrik Rosenholm.

Vasko Mladenov (St. John’s ’13) and Markos Kalovelonis made it to the doubles final at the Belarus F1 but came up short 7-6(8), 6-3 against Yaraslau Shyla and Dzmitry Zhyrmont.

Pro Titles/Finals Last Week:

Singles:
Romania – Dragos Dima (Cornell)
Slovakia – Petr Michnev (Hawaii Pacific)
Spain – Samantha Harris (Duke)

Doubles:
Mexico (ATP 250) – Purav Raja (Loyola Marymount)
USA (CH) – Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss)/Tucker Vorster (Ole Miss)
Slovakia (CH) – Sander Gille (East Tennessee State)/Joran Vliegen (East Carolina)
Austria – Dusty Boyer (Nebraska)/Lukas Ollert (Auburn)
Italy – Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (North Carolina)
Romania – Victor Cornea (Middle Tennessee State/Texas Tech)
Spain – Dennis Uspensky (Wake Forest)/Rob Galloway (Wofford)
USA – Jared Hiltzik (Illinois)/Dominik Koepfer (Tulane)

Runner-Ups:

Singles:
USA (CH) – Cameron Norrie (TCU)
Germany – Roberto Cid (South Florida)
Italy – Yannick Hanfmann (USC)
USA – Rhyne Williams (Tennessee)
USA – Julia Elbaba (Virginia)

Doubles:
Canada (CH) – JP Smith (Tennessee)/Jarryd Chaplin (Tennessee)
Belarus – Vasko Mladenov (St. John’s)
Germany – Roberto Cid (South Florida)
Finland – Markus Kerner (SMU)/Robbie Mudge (NC State)
Slovakia – Petr Michnev (Hawaii Pacific)
USA – Tim Kopinski (USA)/Alex Lawson (Notre Dame)

If you see someone I’m missing let me know.