Pro Circuit Friday Recap

Tagged with: Alejandro Gomez, Alex Rybakov, Andreas Mies, Benjamin Lock, Chris Eubanks, Fredrik Ask, Jarmere Jenkins, Joao Monteiro, JP Smith, Marcelo Arevalo, Nik Scholtz

Since the fall college season has come to a close I thought I’d take a look at the players with college ties that are in action at Pro Circuit events across the planet. We’ll start in Champaign where Georgia Tech junior Chris Eubanks was playing for a spot in the finals of the JSM Challenger against ATP #141 Henri Laaksonen. After splitting a pair of tiebreaks, Eubanks jumped out to a single-break 3-0 lead in the third set but he’d be unable to close it out as Laaksonen took six of the next seven games to take it 7-6(3), 6-7(6), 6-4. Eubanks definitely showed he belonged after hitting 14 aces, landing 64 percent of his first serves, and winning 33 percent of the points on Laaksonen’s serve.

The doubles semifinals are set at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London with John Peers (Baylor ’11) and Henri Kontinen set to meet Mike and Bob Bryan (Stanford ’98*) while Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03*) and Raven Klaasen take on Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. 

JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) won his sixth doubles Challenger title of the year after he and Matt Reid defeated Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Washington ’11) and Christopher Rungkat in straight sets at the $50K Dunlop Srixon Challenger in Toyota, Japan. Smith/Reid earned the lone break of the first set when they broke from 30/40 to go ahead 5-3 and then they served out the opening set from 40/15 to take it 6-3. There was only one break in the second set and it came when Smith/Reid broke at love to go up 5-4 and then a 40/15 hold earned them the title with a 6-3, 6-4 win. The title was Smith’s 26th career pro doubles title (20 Challenger/6 Futures) and his sixth with Reid.  

Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M ’11) and Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11*) advanced to the doubles final in Champaign with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 win over Hans Hach (Abilene Christian ’13) and Mitchell Krueger.  Krajicek and Sandgren will meet Luke Bambridge and Liam Broady after the Brits defeated Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) and Alex Lawson (Notre Dame ’16) 6-3, 3-6, 11-9. 

Alex Rybakov (TCU Soph) advanced to his second semifinal of the year after rolling over the third seed Jose Statham 6-1, 6-4 at the $10K USA F37 Futures in Pensacola. Rybakov, who was the runner-up at this event last year, will meet the second seed Gianni Mina in the semifinals. Winston Lin (Columbia ’15) and Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) both came up short in their quarterfinal matches with Lin falling to Patrick Kypson 6-7(8), 7-6(4), 6-1 while Spencer went down to Naoki Nakagawa 3-6, 6-3, 6-2/ 

West Florida’s Alex Peyrot and Pedro Dumont advanced to the doubles final in Pensacola after holding off Andrew Carter (Louisville ’12) and Pirmin Haenle 7-5, 7-6(7). The Argonauts duo will meet Dominic Cotrone (South Florida ’16) and Robert Galloway (Wofford ’15) after they defeated Alex Rybakov and Austin Smith (Georgia ’16) 6-1, 3-6, 12-10. Note – Cotrone and Galloway converted on their third match point while Rybakov and Smith never got one. 

Jarmere Jenkins (Virginia ’13) won his third doubles title of the year, 10th career, after he and Steven De Waard defeated Sanam Singh (Virginia ’11) and N. Sriram Balaji 6-4, 6-2 in the finals of the $25K Australia F10 Futures in Blacktown. Here is a recap with some quotes from the Blacktown Sun.  

Andreas Mies (Auburn ’13) was looking for his 11th doubles title of the year but he and David Pel lost a tough one to Jeremy Jahn and Adam Majchrowicz in the finals of the $25K Finland F4 Futures in Helsinki. Mies/Pel served for the match up 6-3, 5-4 but were broken from 30/40 and then dropped the second set in a tiebreak 7-4. Mies/Pel led 7-4 in the third set supertiebreak but Jahn/Majchrowicz won six of the final seven points to close it out 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-8. 

Alejandro Gomez (Kentucky ’14) won his third doubles title of the year, fourth career, after he and Carlos Salamanca defeated Davide Pontoglio and Giorgio Portaluri 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 in the finals of the $10K Colombia F7 Futures in Pereira.  Gomez will have a new career high singles and doubles ranking when his points from this week are added in a week from Sunday.   

Fredrik Ask (Arizona ’14) won his first career pro title in his first finals appearance at the $10K Cyprus F1 Futures in Nicosia. Ask and Omar Salman won the doubles title with a three set win over the top seeds Pascal Brunner and Lucas Miedler. Ask/Salman were broken while serving for the second set on the 5-3 no-ad point but they broke back a few games later on a no-ad point to take the set 7-5. Ask/Salman jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set supertiebreak and after falling behind 8-7 they won the final three points to take it 4-6, 7-5, 10-8. Ask entered the week with a doubles ranking of 1318 and when these points are added in he’ll have a new career high ranking.  

Benjamin Lock (Florida State ’16) advanced to his third singles final of the year after defeating Luis Patino 6-4, 7-6(3) at the $10K El Salvador F1 Futures in San Salvador. Lock will meet the top seed Marcelo Arevalo (Tulsa ’11*) after Arevalo knocked off Evan Song 6-3, 6-4. Lock will be seeking his third career singles title while Arevalo hopes to lock up singles title number ten. Lock and Song came up short in the doubles final losing to Jose Olivares and Caio Silva 7-6(6), 6-3.

Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) advanced to his seventh semifinal of the year after getting past Jay Clarke 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the $10K South Africa F3 Futures in Stellenbosch. Next up for Scholtz will be the top seed Jordi Samper-Montana. 

Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech ’16) is into his fourth semfinal this year after a 6-3, 6-4 win over Raul Brancaccio at the $10K Spain F37 Futures in Almeria. Next up for Monteiro is unseeded Mick Lescure.