INDIAN WELLS, January 22, 2024 (Press Release)
For more than half of his life, 30-year-old ATP Tour veteran Mitchell Krueger has been coming to the Coachella Valley and playing high-stakes tournaments.
From the Easter Bowl as a young teen to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells the past 12 years as a professional, Krueger said after his come-from-behind three-set win over Brandon Holt in the singles final of the Southern California Open on Sunday that there are few places he’d rather spend a week than playing in tennis paradise.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 12, 13 years old,” said Krueger, recalling past Easter Bowl USTA Spring National events played at Omni Rancho Las Palmas before making the move a few years back to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. “Any time I get to come and play a tournament here is like a massive treat.”
The No. 4-seeded Krueger married a local from Palm Desert and his wife and in-laws cheered him on this week at the ATP Challenger 50 event played at the IWTG. For the first time all week, Krueger dropped a set, but he used his big serve and remained focused on the bigger points down the stretch to rally for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over the No. 3-seeded Holt.
The winning moment 💪@mitch_krueger lifts the Southern California Open trophy after beating Holt 4-6, 6-3, 6-4!#ATPChallenger | @USTASoCal pic.twitter.com/Wrh3jQih4F
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) January 22, 2024
And a bonus for Krueger is he gets a chance to do it all over again as Week 2 of the Southern California Open began with qualifying on Sunday.
“I felt like the first set was really tight,” said Krueger, the new father of an eight-month-old baby girl. “We both traded some breaks and were both playing at a pretty high level. Honestly, I thought that first set was a coin flip, so I felt like I just needed to keep that positive momentum going early in the second; maybe try and execute better on some closer points. It was three tight sets that turned on really one game in each set.”
It was the eighth pro singles title for the No. 286th world-ranked Krueger as he had previously won the Dallas Challenger 110 title, two Cary Challenger 80s, a Dallas $25k and three ITF Futures titles.
“It was a tight match and Mitch played good and it was close throughout,” said Holt, a former USC All-American from Rolling Hills. “There were a few opportunities here and there that he took advantage of better than I did. But that’s the sport of tennis.”
The 25-year-old Holt added: “It’s so relaxing here and one of the best places to play in the world.”
San Diego County natives Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac, the top-seeded team this week, rolled to the doubles title coming back from a 5-2 deficit in the second set to beat Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alex Lawson, 6-2, 7-6 (3), in a match that was originally scheduled for Saturday but was pushed back a day because of rain.
“It’s tough because you are fired up for the match and you stretch and you warm-up and you are ready to go, then you have to sit around and wait,” Trhac said. “When you go to sleep there’s a little anxiety because the job’s not done yet.”
With four wins this week, Seggerman-Trhac have now won an incredible 45 of their last 47 matches and 11 tournament titles over 13 weeks together. Seggerman said if the pair keep winning, we may just see them at the Big Show in March.
“If we get the invite, we will be back here [for the BNP Paribas],” Seggerman said. “Two weeks in tennis paradise is very special.”
