COLUMBUS, September 25, 2016

Mikael Torpegaard’s tremendous week at the $50,000 Columbus Challenger continues as he downed Tennys Sandgren 7-5, 7-6 in Saturday’s semi-finals. The Denmark native, who had never played a Challenger-level event prior to this week, received a wild card into the main singles draw and has won four-straight matches to reach the title match on Sunday.

In his encounter against the world number 263 from the United States, Torpegaard didn’t face a break point, converting one of his own to secure victory in one hour and 34 minutes.

Torpegaard will face top-seed Benjamin Becker in his first Challenger final. The former Baylor Bear and 2004 NCAA Singles Champion from Germany fought past Australian John-Patrick Smith, winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Becker sent down six aces and broke his opponent’s serve four times. He only won 48 per cent of the total points but prevailed in one hour and 45 minutes.

Becker vies for his 10th ATP Challenger title. The German veteran and Torpegaard will meet for the first time.

The semi-finals of the doubles draw was contested on Saturday evening as well and Torpegaard and Herkko Pollanen took on Mikelis Libietis and Dennis Novikov. The Buckeye duo had a good run this week but it came to an end, as they fell in a tie-breaker in both sets. Philipp Bester and Peter Polansky also advanced to the final. The Canadian tandem beat US-Americans Nicolas Meister and Eric Quigley 2-6, 7-6, 10-6 in one hour and 29 minutes.