Paul Capdeville Wins 7th Challenger Title In Guadalajara

In the midst of the top 100 stars competing in Wimbledon during the past week, people can forget that there are other events going on within the professional tennis landscape. These are the guys who are fighting every week just to cover their expenses on the tour such as flights and accommodation. From the outside looking in, one can easily assume that the life of a professional tennis player is a glamourous one,(which it can be for the top players), but for the most part, it is a life of living out of a suitcase and trying to make a living just like any other job. And just like normal jobs in the real world, if you perform you will get rewarded and promoted, and in this case the reward is the promotion to the upper echelons of mens professional tennis.


For the 32 players in the main draw of the Guadalajara event in Mexico, this was the ultimate goal that was driving them to succeed during the past week. Because a couple of good weeks on the challenger tour can mean a huge springboard in the rankings, and in return, a jump into the larger and more prestigious events on the circuit. This event is a new addition to the 2011 calendar and is already looking the goods, with tremendous facilities and notable sponsors. The next step will be getting a live stream up and running and then it will be complete. Anyway, back to the tennis and for one of the finalists this week, the event started in the qualifying tournament played on the weekend before the main event. And for Canadian Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, it ended a week later than he would have anticipated having lost in the final round of qualifying to world number 758 Juan Sebastian Gomez from Columbia. Due to Fernando Romboli pulling out of the main draw at the last minute with a back injury, Duclos was given a lucky loser spot into the main draw and the Canadian took the opportunity with both hands, fighting his way through the draw all the way to the final where he went down to Chilean veteran Paul Capdeville.

Capdeville was tested in his opening match against Moldovan Roman Borvanov, eventually prevailing in a tight 3 setter, 7-6(7) 4-6 6-2. Borvanov had the Chilean on the ropes in the first set and could have easily snatched the tiebreak but it was not to be. He showed good composure to rebound from the initial disappoint of the first set to take the second, however he ran out of steam in the 3rd and Capdeville has a huge engine room and was never going to go away in this one. The Chilean, who is being managed by his brother, had a simpler passage in his next two matches where he made the semi finals without too much trouble. He then survived another tough 3 setter, this time against Jan Mertl from the Czech Republic. Mertl had defeated the 3rd seed and probably the favourite for the title Bobby Reynolds in the 1st round and was no doubt feeling confident coming into the semi final, but again Capdeville weathered the storm and hung tough again for another 3 set victory.

His opponent in the final had some equally as tough battles as well on his road to the decider. I've already touched upon his run through qualifying and his advancement into the main draw courtesy of being a lucky loser and Duclos made the most of the opportunity fighting hard in all his matches. His year to date had consisted of predominantly slugging it out in challenger qualifying and had only made one challenger quarter final before this week. This was simply an opportunity he had to take and take it he did, defeating the number one seed from Brazil Joao Souza in 2 tight sets 7-5 7-6(7) in their semi final encounter.

The two had already met once before on the tour this year, with Capdeville defeating the Canadian in the first round of qualifying at the Acapulco 500 event in February at the beginning of the year. The same result would happen again here with Capdeville taking it in straight sets, 7-5 6-1. Some good fight from Duclos to make it this far and to trouble the Chilean in the 1st set but he had nothing left for the second. Still, Duclos gained some very valuable ranking points, 60 to be precise, and will be confident of playing well and improving the ranking throughout the rest of the season. For Capdeville, it was 100 ranking points and a 7th challenger title. Both players will now head to the Winnetka challenger in America next week.


In the weeks other challenger event in Marburg Germany, local Bjorn Phau defeated Czech Jan Hajek in 3 sets, 6-4 2-6 6-3.

Challenger Tour, Milan Final: Albert Ramos Wins 3rd CH Title

The Aspria Tennis Cup in Milan, Italy, was played last week in conjunction with the Wimbledon qualies from Roehampton. This was where the clay courters who felt they didn't have a chance of qualifying for Wimbledon came to gain some valuable ranking points and press their claims for a challenger title. With the exception of the top two seeds of course with Pere Riba and Ruben-Ramirez Hildago making the main draw directly and lets just say that Robin Haase and Rik de Voest are very lucky human beings right about now. In any case, both of them lost early, Hildago to eventual finalist Evgeny "cousin of Kournikova" Korolev in the first round, and Riba to Galvani in the 2nd round after defeating Thomas "comeback" Muster in his opening round clash.


Unfortunately the final ended on a retirement, with the luckless Evgeny Korolev having to retire while trailing 4-6 0-3 to Spaniard Albert Ramos. One can only hope it isn't a reoccurrence of the elbow injury that required surgery in September last year and kept him off the tour for 4 months. Korolev also retired in the quarter finals of the Prostejov challenger a fortnight ago, so clearly something still isn't right. Elbow injuries are a real nuisance, especially at a young age so hopefully Evgeny can rest up and still be able to compete for the rest of the year in an attempt to get the ranking, which has slipped to 214, back to where it belongs. Of course if he keeps winning matches, then the ranking will take care of itself.

Onto the eventual winner now, and Ramos has now picked up three challenger titles and in the process, has firmly entrenched himself in the top 100 and will most likely pick up a main draw spot in the US Open for his victory here.  The young Spaniard has made decent strides since turning pro in 2007 and is well placed to progress further now, just needs to hone is game more on the hardcourts which will come in time. Ramos had a fairly simple run to the semi finals where he ran into the old Italian warhorse, Stefano Galvani who gave him a tough match, with Albert eventually prevailing in three sets, 2-6 6-3 6-1. Ramos would have fancied his chances against a fit and healthy Korolev, especially on clay, let alone against the injured version that he got yesterday. Korolev was going for his shots, as he always does, in an attempt to end the match quickly and on his terms but the final was always going in one direction, and Albert Ramos victory.

The Challenger tour now moves onto Mexico and Germany next week.