TENNIS – ILIA Simakin from Russia stayed on track to come away with a fantastic double yesterday in the highly competitive Manama Challenger, currently being played at the Public Security Officers Club in Gudaibiya.
Simakin, ranked 281st in the world, marched through to the men’s singles semi-finals as well as to the men’s doubles final alongside countryman and playing partner Egor Agafonov.
The Manama Challenger is a category 50 competition that is part of this year’s ATP Challenger Tour calendar. It features top professional players from around the world who are vying for a share of the $60,000 in total prize money.
Simakin needed three sets to defeat Ivan Marrero Curbelo from Spain 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in a tight quarter-final yesterday. The second seed will now take on sixth seed Petr Brunclik from Czechia in the last four. Brunclik defeated Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-1, 6-3 yesterday to advance.
The other semis clash will be between French qualifier Matisse Bobichon and Briton Toby Samuel.
Bobichon battled back from a set down to oust Alexander Ritschard from Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, while Samuel was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over eighth seed Sergey Fomin from Uzbekistan.
The semi-finals will be played today from 1pm at the same venue.
Meanwhile, Simakin and Agafonov will be taking on countryman Petr Bar Biryukov and Italian Alexandr Binda in the men’s doubles title-decider today, scheduled for no earlier than a 4.30pm start.
Simakin and Agafonov dug deep to defeat the German-American alliance of Maximilian Homberg and Oren Vasser 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 in their semis contest yesterday; while Bar Biryukov and Binda won 6-3, 6-4 against the top-seeded Finnish pair of Patrik Niklas-Salminen and Eero Vasa.
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