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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Around the Pro Circuit: Devvarman Wins Again, Tatishvili and Ram Take Challenger Titles


Holiday or no, there was plenty of action last week on the USTA Pro Circuit, with a $10,000 Men's Futures on clay in Pittsburgh, a $50,000 Men's Challenger in Winnetka, Ill., and a $50,000 Women's Challenger in Boston.

Two-time NCAA singles champion Somdev Devvarman won his second straight Futures in Pittsburgh Sunday, again without the loss of a set, and he and Treat Huey also captured their second consecutive doubles title. Devvarman downed Travis Helgeson in the final, and those of us who saw their three-set semifinal clash at No. 1 singles when Georgia upset Virginia in Tulsa, can't help but be surprised by Sunday's score: 6-3, 6-1. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provided this account of the match today.

In Winnetka, former Illinois player Rajeev Ram took his first Challenger level singles title with a straight set win over Scoville Jenkins in the final. Ram, who has excelled in doubles throughout his pro career, was unseeded in singles (and didn't play doubles) but took out top seed Vince Spadea, No. 5 seed Brendan Evans, No. 7 seed Benedikt Dorsch and Jenkins, the No. 6 seed, during the week.

The women's title in Boston went to 18-year-old Anna Tatishvili, who trains at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton. Tatishvili, originally from the country of Georgia, won the $25,000 Pro Circuit event in El Paso last month, and had reached the semifinals of the $50,000 tournament in Carson in May, so she has been piling up the WTA points recently. The Boston Globe filed this report on the final.

This week the men are in Peoria for another $10,000 event (isn't it about time the bumped that up? I see they've raised the prize money for the U.S. Open again). And it looks like the Peoria Journal Star will be reporting on it throughout the week. Today's story is about the University of North Carolina players competing, with Stefan Hardy being the main focus. His opponent in the final round of qualifying was Alexandru Pasareanu, who you might remember as being a remarkably mature looking 14-year-old last year at the Junior Orange Bowl where he beat Robert Livi in the qualifying.

The women are in Allentown, Pa., and their paper, The Morning Call, filed this report on Monday's qualifying. Christina McHale, pictured in that story, did get through today's final qualifying round.

For complete Pro Circuit results, see the Pro Circuit results page.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isner just blasted Levine in Newport yesterday.

Also, Taylor Dent made his return to the tennis world by choking. He was up 6-3,5-3 on Dancevic, served for it at 5-4, but lost 9 straight games til he finally held to make it 1-5 in the 3rd. He kept getting up a break but just couldnt solidify it, which is odd for him on grass. Hopefully he can stay healthy.

Colette Lewis said...

Actually Austin, I think it was the other way around. Some of the initial press reports had Isner winning, but Levine won the match according to later reports and the draw on ATP.com

Anonymous said...

Yeah, evidently the live scoreboard had it wrong the entire match. Not really sure how that happened.

scott said...

I was following the live scoring on that Isner-Levine match, how could they get is so wrong? I was certain Levine lost, it was even printed as such in the paper this morning. Then I'm looking at scores from today and see that Levine lost to Armritraj in the 2nd round. So much for reliable live scoring.