Thanks Esther for this press release from the media team at Tashkent Challenger.Top seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei stopped the winning run of Frenchman Mathieu Montcourt to lift the singles title at the $125,000 Tashkent Challenger, an ATP Challenger series event which concluded at the Olympic Tennis School here.
In a one sided final top seed Rendy outplayed Montcourt 6-3, 6-2 in a 1 hour 24 minutes final to take his first title in 3 months.
Rendy won $18000 and 90 ATP points for his win, while Montcourt had to be content with $10,600 and 63 ATP points.
The finalist were also presented with the national dress of Uzbekistan.
The finals played in a full capacity stadium was expected to be a close encounter with both players in good form, but turned out to be damp squib with Rendy taking charge from the very beginning of the match. “I twisted my ankle four days before coming here and I thought would not be able to play in the event, but my trainer has done a fantastic job and I ended up winning the event,” said an elated Rendy.A dejected Montcourt said all credit to Rendy,
"I had a plan for him, I decided to cut the speed and not give my opponent any rhythm, this ploy worked for me," he added.
"My win here is not luck, I beat many good players, I played the best tennis of my career, after my win here I’m confident that I’ll be able to play good tennis and beat many good players in the future."
"He did not give me chance at all, basically I’m a patient player wait for my chances, but today I had no chance."Speaking at the prize distribution ceremony the Tournament Director Mr. S. Uthrapathy said that he was hopeful that the Tashkent Challenger would become an annual feature on the ATP calendar.
"I was hitting the ball very well, but my legs just did not support me, I was tired after the four good matches I played this week," he added.
He added that there will be many more exiting professional tennis events in Uzbekistan next year.
The Mayor of Tashkent Abdukhahhor Tukhtaev, the Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Erkin Kutibaev, Tournament director S. Uthrapathy and ATP Supervisor Carl Baldwin presented the awards.
In the doubles final on Saturday, Flavio Cipolla and Pavel Snobel won the doubles event after defeated 4th seeded Russian pair of Michail Elgin and Alexandre Kudryatsev 6-3, 6-4 in a one sided encounter. The winning pair received a purse of $7,750 and 90 points, while runners-up had to be content with $4,500 and 63 points.
“We’re both good friends and have played for the first time and won, may be we will play more events in the future,” said Cipolla.
The Deputy Minister of Sports and Culture Erkin Kutibaev, Tournament director S. Uthrapathy and ATP Supervisor Carl Baldwin presented the awards.
