Sandgren Finishes USTA Pro Circuit in Style; Champaign Challenger Recap

Sorry for getting this out a day late, but here is the recap for the final Challenger on the USTA Pro Circuit of 2013. This Challenger took place on the campus of the Illinois Fighting Illini at their home tennis center. Like the prior challengers at Knoxville (University of Tennessee) and Charlottesville (University of Virginia) this tournament featured many current college players, as well as former ones returning to their former school. Here are the current college players that were in the draws here:

Qualifying Singles:                     Qualifying Doubles:
Farris Gosea (Illinois)                 Gosea with Dennis Nevolo
Blake Bazarnik (Illinois)
Julian Childers (Illinois)
Nick Chappell (TCU)
Brian Page (Illinois)
Mac Styslinger (Virginia)
Alex Jesse (Illinois)

Main Draw Singles:                   Main Draw Doubles:
Jared Hiltzik (Illinois)               Tim Kopinski (Illinois)/Ross Guignon (Illinois)
Marcos Giron (UCLA)              Hiltzik/Alexander
Tim Kopinski (Illinois)

In the first round of the main draw singles, only 4 of the seeds advanced to the next round. Tim Smyczek (1 seed) had the same fate as Charlottesville and lost his first match. Peter Polansky followed suit as his hopes of reaching a 4th straight challenger final came to and end. Former Tennessee Volunteer Tennys Sandgren thrashed Canadian Filip Peliwo 6-0, 6-1. That set up a second round match with 2 seeded Jack Sock, who survived a close match against Bjorn Fratenjelo.

The seeds continued to struggle in the next round, as Rajeev Ram and both Jack Sock both went down. Sandgren defeated Sock 7-6, 6-1. Samuel Groth and JP Smith were the last seeds standing in the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals after a JP Smith loss, Samuel Groth was the only seed to advance. Smith went down to Sandgren, who kept up his impressive run in Champaign.

In the semifinals, former Illinois alumni Dennis Nevolo made a quite run through the draw to set up a match up with Samuel Groth. Groth ended up taking the match 7-6, 6-4. In the other semifinal, Tennys Sandgren continued his winning streak and defeated the qualifier from Great Britian Daniel Smethurst 7-5, 6-3.

In an Australian-American final, Tennys Sandgren finished off the swing of Challengers at college campus' and became the 3rd (out of 3) American to win the singles title. He defeated Samuel Groth 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

In the doubles, both Illinois teams that got wildcards into the main draw won their first round matches. The team of Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski (coming off a semifinal run at the ITA Indoor) started the trend by defeating the team of Denys Molchanov and Fritz Wolmarans. Jared Hiltzik and Alex Jesse followed the trend by defeating Carsten Ball and Peter Polansky. This knocked Polansky out in the first round in both draws. The same fortune did not come true for both teams in the 2nd round, as Guignon and Kopinski ran into a team of JP Smith and Groth who took their 6th straight win. Hiltzik and Jesse lost to Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren.

In the semifinals, the British team of Edward Corrie and Daniel Smethurst snapped Smith and Groth's 6 match win streak as the British duo won 7-6, 6-2. On the bottom half of the draw, Sandgren and Krajicek advanced to the final after defeating Michael Shabaz and Sanam Singh.

In the final, Tennys Sandgren came up short of winning both the singles and doubles, as the British team knocked off Sandgren and Krajicek 7-6, 0-6, 1-0.

That is it for 2013 for Challenger tournaments, but stay tuned for more pro/junior/college coverage. Thanks for reading!