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Monday, March 18, 2013

Krajicek, Singh, Corrie Win Futures Titles; Kiick Gets First Top 100 Win in Sony Open Qualifying


College tennis alumni supplied many of the finalists in the men's Futures events last week, with Texas A&M's Austin Krajicek, Virginia's Sanam Singh and Texas's Ed Corrie taking titles.

Krajicek, 22, reached the final of the $15,000 Futures in Gatineau Canada two weeks ago, losing to former Auburn star Tim Puetz of Germany. Yesterday in Sherbrooke Canada, Krajicek, who was unseeded in both tournaments, beat former Wisconsin Badger Moritz Baumann of Germany, also unseeded, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Krajicek, the 2011 NCAA doubles champion, also won the doubles title, with 2012 NCAA champion Chase Buchanan of Ohio State. The No. 2 seeds defeated top seeds Daniel Garza of Mexico and former Florida State star Vahid Mirzadeh 6-3, 6-2, and were never taken to a match tiebreaker in their other three wins. It was Krajicek's 11th doubles title (three of them Challenger titles, the rest in Futures) and third singles title, all in Futures.

At the $15,000 Pro Circuit Futures in Calabasas, Singh defeated 2010 NCAA champion Bradley Klahn of Stanford 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(3) in singles and took the doubles title too, with former Alabama No. 1 Saketh Myneni. It is the 25-year-old Singh's seventh Futures title, but the first outside his home country of India.  For more on the final, see this account from the tournament's Steve Pratt.

Corrie continued his stellar 2013 with his third Futures title in his home country of Great Britain in the past two months. Seeded fifth in the Bath $10,000 Futures, Corrie, 25, defeated No. 4 seed Dan Evans, also of Great Britain, 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final.

In the women's Pro Circuit $10,000 event in Orlando last week, no Americans made it past the quarterfinals.  Jamie Loeb, who qualified, fell to No. 3 seed Conny Perrin of Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Top seed Masa Zec-Peskiric of Slovenia won it, defeating unseeded Belgian qualifier Michaela Boev 0-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Yesterday I mentioned Allie Kiick's victory in the $10,000 event in Gainesville, which was two weeks ago.  Today the 17-year-old wild card from Plantation, Florida posted her first WTA Top 100 win, defeating No. 71 Lara Arruabarrena of Spain, the No. 10 seed, 6-4, 7-5 in the first round of the Sony Open qualifying. Kiick was up a set and on serve early in the second when rain delayed her match, but the interruption didn't hurt her. After getting a break for 4-2, Kiick kept it, and had two match points serving for it at 5-4. She lost that game, but broke Arruabarrena in the next and converted her third match point after going to deuce at 6-5. Kiick will play Vania King in the second round of qualifying.

Other American women posting first round qualifying victories were CoCo Vandeweghe, Alexa Glatch and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Due to the rain, matches are still going on as of 10 p.m.

On the men's side, wild cards Steve Johnson and Jack Sock won their matches, with Johnson beating No. 16 seed Matt Ebden of Australia 6-4, 7-6(5) and Sock coming back to take out No. 12 seed Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2.  Other American men advancing to the second round of qualifying are Tim Smyczek, Rajeev Ram and Robby Ginepri, who will play Sock next.

The main draws were released today, with wild card Vicky Duval drawn against Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic and wild cards Madison Keys, Eugenie Bouchard and Monica Puig get qualifiers. 2011 Orange Bowl champion and 2012 US Open girls finalist Anett Kontaveit of Estonia will play Christina McHale.

On the men's side, wild card Christian Harrison plays Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil and wild card Rhyne Williams draws Santiago Giraldo of Colombia. Wild card James Blake will play Ryan Harrison.

Complete draws are available here.

1 comments:

too bad said...

One of the Sony qualifying WCs, Nishioka loses 0 & 0. That's embarrassing. How often do you ever see that scoreline at this level?