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Evan King Sweeps Through the Dominican; Bernardo Saraiva Wins First Pro Title

by | Dec 19, 2016 | Blog

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While most of us are spending the holiday season closer to home guys like Evan King are still out on the road trying to earn some extra points to better position themselves up for next year. The 2013 Michigan graduate has spent the last three weeks in the Dominican Republic and after a singles and doubles runner-up showing two weeks ago he was able to get the sweep this week. King won his fourth doubles title of the year, 17th career, when he and Alexios Halebian defeated Nebojsa Peric and Ilija Vucic 6-4, 6-4 at the Dominican Republic F3 Futures in Santo Domingo Este. King’s doubles ranking should climb just inside the top 300 when these 18 points are added in a week from now. 

 

After winning the doubles title on Friday, King was back on court on Saturday to take on the top seed ATP 303 Calvin Hemery. King went up an early break at 3-2 in the first but Hemery would break back a few games later to even it at 4-4. King managed to break back in a one-deuce game to go up 5-4 and then he served out the set from 40/30 to take it 6-4. Hemery bounced back and won 12 of the first 14 points in the second set to take a 3-0 lead but then King flipped the script and won 13 of the next 17 to even it at 3-3. King went up 15/40 on Hemery’s 3-3 service game but the Frenchman won the next four points to hold for 4-3. After another five holds the set went to a tiebreak and Hemery got off to the quick start by jumping out to a 4-1* lead. King took the next three to even it at 4-4 but Hemery would counter with two straight for a 6-4* lead. King fought off both set points and went up *7-6 but Hemery evened it at 7-7. The server would win the next five points before King closed it out 11-9. It was King’s third singles title of the year, sixth career, and when these 18 points are added in next week he should see his singles ranking rise to around 346 (334 CH).

The instagram below shows a video clip of match point (if it doesn’t come through click on the words at the bottom and it will open up in a new window).

 

 
Bernardo Saraiva (San Francisco ’15) won his first career pro title when he and David Pichler got a walkover win over Shahar Elbaz and Vladimir Uzhylovsky in the finals of the Israel F18 Futures in Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan. Saraiva entered the week with new career high rankings in both singles and doubles and he’ll have new career highs again in this week’s 12/19 rankings with a singles ranking of 894 and a doubles ranking of 676. Saraiva will see his doubles ranking climb to around 580 when these 18 points are added in next week.
 
Ema Burgic Bucko (Baylor ’15) won her fifth doubles title of the year and second in as many weeks as she and Ulrikke Eikeri defeated Sonia Grzywocz and Caitlyn Williams (Tennessee ’15) 6-1, 6-1 in the final of the ITF $10K in Antalya, Turkey. Burgic Bucko has now won 11 career doubles titles and has a current doubles ranking of 164 though when these 12 points are added in next week she should climb to 160. Williams, who didn’t play a pro event for over six years before playing Hilton Head in October, has now made it to the doubles final in two of the three events that she has entered. 
 
Beatrice Gumulya (Clemson ’15) won her third doubles title of the year, ninth career, as she and Ana Veselinovic defeated Kamonwan Buayam and Katy Dunne 6-4, 6-3 in the finals of the ITF $25K in Pune, India. Gumulya currently has a doubles ranking of 506 but with these 50 points she will move just inside the top 400 next week.
 
 
Sadio Doumbia (Georgia ’12) looked like he was going to win his fourth singles title of the year but he wasn’t able to close out Fabien Reboul in the finals of the Thailand F4 Futures in Hua Hin. Doumbia took the opening set 7-6(3) but Reboul grabbed the second 6-2. Doumbia led 4-2 in the third but Reboul held at love, broke in a three-deuce game, and held from 40/15 to go ahead 5-4. Doumbia held from 40/30 and broke from 40/30 to go up 6-5 but he’d be unable to serve it out as Reboul broke from 40/30 to send it to a match-deciding third set tiebreak. Doumbia went down a mini-break at 6-4 and managed to fight off a match point but Reboul closed it out 7-6(5) to win his first career singles title. As luck would have it Doumbia and Reboul are scheduled to meet again on Tuesday in the first round of the Thailand F5.
 
Honorable Mention:
  • Shane Vinsant (Texas A&M ’16) made it to his second career singles semifinal at the Dominican Republic F3
  • Jonas Luetjen (Ole Miss ’13) made it to the semifinals in Israel for the third week in a row
  • Giovani Samaha (Troy ’16) advanced to his first-ever singles quarterfinal at the Egypt F37
 
Pro Titles The Week of 12/12-12/18:
 
Singles:
Dominican Republic – Evan King (Michigan ’13)
 
Doubles:
Dominican Republic – Evan King (Michigan ’13)
India – Beatrice Gumulya (Clemson ’15)
Israel – Bernardo Saraiva (San Francisco ’15)
Turkey – Ema Burgic Bucko (Baylor ’15)
 
 
Runner-Ups
 
Singles:
Thailand – Sadio Doumbia (Georgia ’12)
 
Doubles:
Dominican Republic – Ilija Vucic (St. John’s ’12*)
Turkey – Caitlyn Williams (Tennessee ’15)
 
*didn’t stay at school for all four years 
 

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