It was successful week for Frances Tiafoe in Sarasota, as the 19 year-old American defeated countryman Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 6-4 to win his first Challenger title on clay. It comes after consecutive defeats in 2015 and 2016 in the Tallahassee event, scheduled for this week.
Tiafoe negotiated some tough matches throughout the week, going three sets against Andrea Arnaboldi and requiring a last-gasp tie break win over 2016 finalist Jurgen Melzer in the semi-finals. Tiafoe did defeat seventh seed Henri Laaksonen, the talented Mitchell Krueger, and Sandgren all in straight sets.
Sandgren was forced to three sets in both of his opening matches against Reilly Opelka and fourth seed Adam Pavlasek. A walkover was received from Denis Kudla in the quarter-finals, before Sandgren defeated Frenchman Vincent Millot in straight sets in the semi-finals.
The match was closer than the score perhaps suggested, as Sandgren actually had two break points in the second set to Tiafoe’s one. The older man could not take either though, whilst Tiafoe proved strong going three-for-eight on break point opportunities.
The week has done good things for Tiafoe’s ranking, moving to a new career-high of No.72. Sandgren also moves to a new career-high of No.136. Sandgren has now reached two Challenger finals on the year, having already won the Tempe Challenger (def. Milojevic) back in February.
