- Luca Vanni wins Brescia title with come-back win (6-7, 6-4, 7-6), James Duckworth 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 winner in Toyota.
It’s been a tough year for Luca Vanni, but the tall Italian is ending it on a high. Vanni had not won consecutive matches in the main draw of any event, at ATP or Challenger level, since July when he won the Segovia Challenger. Once ranked at an even 100, he went into the Brescia event ranked outside the top 200.
Tennis does not always take into account form. Vanni took down Blaz Kavcic, survived a marathon against Tommy Robredo, and beat top seed Lukas Lacko in straight sets to earn his place in the final against lucky-loser Laurynas Grigelis. This all after he had lost in the first round of his last three events including a straight sets defeat to Lorenzo Sonego last week.
The final against Grigelis was a tale of two statistics. The sheer number of aces (Vanni’s thirteen to Grigelis’ twenty-two), and the number of break points created but not converted (Vanni broke twice from fifteen chances, and Grigelis once from eleven).
Two sets were decided by tie-breaks, the first and the third, with Vanni securing the third set with a single break. Vanni was forced to save a match point in the tie-break, but clung on for a ten-eight record in the decider.
Player of the tournament: Laurynas Grigelis Sometimes life hands you and opportunity and for Grigelis, he took his chance this week. Having been defeated by Egor Gerasimov in qualifying, he replaced Stefano Napolitano in the draw after the Italian retired with pharyngitis. Wins against Andrea Arnaboldi and Leonardo Mayer, and a retirement win over Gerasimov brought Grigelis to the semi-finals, before he dispatched Salvatore Caruso in straight sets. Grigelis can expect to move around seventy places in the rankings.
Toyota: James Duckworth continued his strong end to the year, winning his second title in three consecutive Challenger finals in the last three weeks. Having won in Canberra and finishing runner-up to Hyeon Chung in Kobe, Duckworth swept the field in Toyota, winning in straight sets in all matches en route to the final including against top seed Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarter-finals.
Duckworth started well, breaking late against Tatsumo Ito to edge the first set 7-5. The Japanese seventh seed recovered to take the second set, setting up a grandstand third set. Duckworth riding the confidence of three final runs, pulled away, breaking twice, and discouraging an attempted come-back from Ito by saving all three break points in the final set.
Shock Exit: Hyeon Chung is in great form, well on the way to recovering his Top 100 ranking that injury so cruelly robbed him of. The Kobe winner was shocked though, losing in straight sets to Japanese wildcard Yusuke Takahashi 7-5, 6-3 in the second round. Takahashi ignored a ranking disparity of more than four-hundred places to shock the fourth seed and make his first challenger quarter-final.
