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Far away from the courts of the Australian Open, India’s evergreen tennis ace Leander Paes won his first title of the year at the Newport Beach Challenger tournament in southern California, USA on Saturday. The Indian, who teamed up with American James Cerretani for this event, beat Treat Huey and Denis Kudla 6-4, 7-5 in the final of this $150,000 tournament, which is part of the Oracle Challenger Series.
This is the 25th Challenger title of the 44-year-old Leander’s illustrious resume.
The Indo-American pair had 81% of their first serves in and converted three out of their eight break point opportunities. They conceded only one break of serve while saving eight break points, which was a big deciding factor in the summit clash.
Title after a difficult start to 2018
The Kolkata-born tennis legend did not have a promising start to the new season after finishing last year with five trophies on the ATP Challenger circuit. His new partnership with Purav Raja was just beginning to bear fruit towards the end of 2017 as the two triumphed in back-to-back Challenger events in the USA.
However, the transition to the new season turned out to be difficult. After tasting defeat in two ATP tournaments this year, the two played at the Australian Open where they reached the pre-quarter-finals after accounting for the fifth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.
The 61st ranked Paes then turned his attention to the Challenger circuit to get some much-needed boost of confidence and the decision proved to be a wise one.
Paes and Cerretani were seeded second at the Newport Beach Challenger and thoroughly justified their high seeding. They did not drop a set en route to the title.
They started their campaign with an effortless 7-5, 6-3 win over Maximo Gonzalez and Ariel Behar. The young American pair of Michael Mmoh and Frances Tiafoe then gave them a walkover in the next round.
In the semi-finals, Paes and Cerretani were just as impressive as their first round match and registered a 6-3, 6-3 win over the fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela for a smooth passage into the final.
