Cream of Latvian tennis in Estonia for Futures Tournament
13 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
At the start of the tournament currently being held in Kuressaare in Estonia, six Latvians were at the site to take part in singles competition.
Unfortunately Mikelis Libietis, Rihards Emulins, Arturs Kazijevs, Oskars Vaskis lost in the qualifying competition. Mikelis and Arturs are trying to become established players on the next level from the junior circuit, Emulins formerly represented his country in Davis Cup, Oskars has done some coaching but is yet to establish himself at international level on any circuit.
Deniss Pavlovs has fallen dramatically down the rankings this year due to poor form and injuries. He has had to compete exclusively on the Futures circuit this year. He played for Latvia in Davis Cup against Ukraine in an away tie in February, losing to their top player Sergiy Stakhovsky. Latvia were without their highest ranked player Ernests Gulbis who was preparing for 1000 event in Indian Wells.
Andis Juška will join Deniss in the Main Draw of Estonia F1. He and Deniss are also teaming up in Doubles. Arturs and Mikelis have played together at Futures level and will do so again in Estonia.
Updates to follow.
Deniss Pavlovs
Sevastova succeeds in Hungary, Andis Juška exits Pozoblanco Challenger
07 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Anastasija Sevastova, Andis Juska, Latvians on Tour(round up)
A new round of tournaments, the women are on the clay of Bastad in Sweden and Budapest in Hungary. The men are on the grass in Newport, Rhode Island in the U.S. There is also the continuation of the Challenger Tour for the men( the Tier of tournaments below the ATP Tour). In addition there are Davis Cup ties to be held from 9-11th July, quarter-final round for teams in the World Group of the competition.
In Budapest Anastasija Sevastova has beaten Anastasija Yakimova of Belarus in the 1st round, and 5th seeded Shuai Peng of China to reach the last 8, of the GDF Suez Grand Prix. Peng was forced to miss the grass segment of the season with illness, so perhaps this was not such a big surprise. In her quarter-final Sevastova will face the winner of the match between Anna Chakvetadze of Russia and Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru seeded 2.
Andis Juška meanwhile, entered the 85,000 Euro Challenger event held in Pozoblanco in Spain. He first competed in doubles with George Bastl of Switzerland (they were wild-cards into the event). However, they were beaten in a deciding Champions Tie-break by French pair Brezac and Stouff, going down 11-9.
Unfortunately Andis didn’t fare any better in the singles, losing to Gero Kretschmer of Germany, winning only 6 games, 3 in each set.
Top (Anastasija Sevastova) Bottom (Andis Juška)
I will keep you posted regularly on Latvian players on Tour, and also anything of note happening elsewhere on ATP Tour/WTA Tour.
Thank you for reading!
Di
