BENGALURU, May 16, 2026 (by Anirudh Suresh)
It’s a landmark moment in the career of Keegan Smith as the 27-year-old from the United States clinched his maiden title on the ATP Challenger Tour on Saturday in Bengaluru, India to break into the Top 250 of the ATP Rankings for the first time in his career. Top seed of the Karnataka Open, Smith breezed past the fourth seeded Philip Sekulic 6-2, 7-5 to win the biggest title of his career thus far.
It was a performance of the highest composure from the 27-year-old, who masterfully countered the big-hitting barrage from Sekulic to get his hands on the ATP Challenger 50 title. Sekulic (22) outnumbered Smith (16) in terms of the total winners and produced multiple highlight reels, yet it was Smith who proved to be the victor in straight sets thanks to a thoroughly professional performance.
On the day, Smith executed his game plan to perfection: he was more than happy to play second fiddle to Sekulic and rev it up only when there was an opportunity to switch gears. This was reflected in the fact that the former UCLA man committed just 13 unforced errors in the entire contest, forcing the big-hitting 22-year-old from Australia to come up with spectacular winners game after game.
Sekulic found occasional joy but, in the end, it proved to be too much of an ask as the youngster, unable to sustain intensity, ended up going down in straight sets.
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“Even though I usually do play aggressively, sometimes it’s good to just hit the big targets and let them go for too much. It’s a fine line, but that’s pretty much what works,” Smith said after the match.
“I just told myself ‘smaller targets on my first serve, and then shrinking the court by three feet on both sides’ – that was pretty much my game plan.”
It didn’t also help Sekulic’s cause on the day that the two times he broke serve, he immediately got broken back.
It was Sekulic who drew first blood in the match as he broke Smith at 1-1 in the first set, but the youngster was unable to consolidate his advantage. Then, at 3-3 in the second set, the world number 357 looked to have secured a decisive break, but he once again ended up getting broken back immediately.
Still, despite the disappointment in the final, this has proven to be a very productive week for Sekulic, who has jumped 46 spots to move to No.311 in the world in the live rankings.
Smith, meanwhile, is up to a career-best 245 in the live rankings. The 27-year-old now has one eye on making it to the Wimbledon qualies: he will all but achieve that goal should he make another deep run in next week’s Bengaluru 3 Challenger happening at the same venue.
“I’m definitely thinking about Wimbledon qualies, which is really close,” the top seed revealed.
“I’ve been just thinking about that. I think I need to make the semis of the next tournament [Bengaluru 3 Challenger] but I don’t want to focus too much on that right now.”
Next week’s tournament in Bengaluru, starting May 18, will also be an ATP 50 Challenger. Victory in that would take Smith to 207 in the rankings.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, it was delight for the local fans as the Indian duo of Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and Saketh Myneni claimed the men’s doubles crown with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 victory over Petr Bar Biryukov of Russia and Grigoriy Lomakin from Ukraine.
