Vishnu, Sriram emerge champions in China thriller
NEWDELHI: Vishnu Vardhan and N Sriram Balaji won their third Challenger title of the 2017 season together when they downed Austin Krajicek and Jackson Withrow in the final of the Shenzhen event in China.
The giant-killing Indians upset the fourth seeded Americans 7-6(3) 7-6(3) in a tight summit clash of the USD 75,000 event. They earned 90 ranking points each and split USD 4650 as prize money.Before this event, Vardhan and Balaji had triumphed at Chengdu and Fergana as well. Vardhan had also won a title with Toshihide Matsui in Astana. Vardhan, who is ranked 134 in doubles, is likely to achieve his career-best ranking when the new list will be issued tomorrow. His previous career-best rank was 123, achieved in August this year.
GOERGES BEATS VANDEWEGHE IN FINAL
ZHUHAI: German Julia Goerges tamed American CoCo Vandeweghe 7-5 6-1 in the final of the WTA Elite Trophy to claim the biggest title of her career on Sunday.
Second seed Vandeweghe got an early break and breezed to a 5-2 lead in the opening set before the German staged a brilliant comeback. The seventh seed, who won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow a fortnight back, broke back while the American was serving for the opening set and went on to win it 7-5. Vandeweghe won only one of the last 12 games in the match as the 29-year-old pinned her with a barrage of winners while dropping just one point on serve in the second set.
Goerges was simply unstoppable in the second set and she completed the victory with a crosscourt return winner on her second championship point.
The 29-year-old screamed in delight after completing a stellar year in which she won two titles and reached five finals.
“I can’t imagine a better ending to the season, two titles in two weeks... this is the biggest one,” Goerges said after receiving the trophy from her compatriot and 22-times singles grand slam champion Steffi Graf.
SOCK ON THE BRINK OF TOUR FINALS
PARIS: Jack Sock ended local favouriteJulienBenneteau’srun at the Paris Masters with a 7-5 6-2 victory to reach the final and move to the brink of an ATP Finals spot on Saturday.
The American 16th seed, who started the week in 24th place in the race to the season-ending tournament in London, needs to win the title against Filip Krajinovic to take part in the Nov. 12-19 event after the Serbian qualifier beat another American, John Isner 6-4 6-7(2) 7-6(5).
Sock is looking to snatch the last remaining spot for the eightman tournament at the O2, which is currently held by Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
“I feel more seized than the pressure. If the pressure would have kicked in, a lot of it would have been today as well playing in front of the French crowd, playing a French player,” Sock told a news conference.
“But I was able to go out today and play my game, swing big, kind of like I always do, and play some good tennis and get through. Earlier, Krajinovic ended ninth seed Isner’s hopes of reaching the ATP Finals.