SAVANNAH, April 21, 2015

Qualifier Tommy Paul, defeated No. 2 seed, Ruben Bemelmans, 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3, at the St. Joseph’s/Candler Savannah Challenger on Tuesday. The 17-year old Boca Raton, Fla. resident started off strong in the first set, staying neck in neck with the Belgian and winning 81% of his first serve points.  In the second set, both players continued to slug it out, but Bemelmans was able to convert two break points and took the set in yet another close tie breaker.  By the third set, Paul was able to close it out after dropping the first two games and tying it up 3-3.  Paul won the match just minutes shy of the two and half hour mark.

Paul quickly took to Twitter re-tweeting congratulation tweets from friends and family.  Paul is currently ranked No. 720 on the ATP World Tour.

Previewing Wednesday, play kicks off at 11:00a with second round action as American teen sensation, Frances Tiafoe, takes on No. 6 seed Frank Dancevic.  Tiafoe is having a stellar year, winning the Bakersfield, CA futures tournament and making it to the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Sarasota Open just last week.

“He turned pro just a few weeks ago and we are excited to have him make the St. Joseph’s/ Candler one of his first tournaments after the big announcement”, said Scott Mitchell, tournament director of the St. Joseph’s/Candler Savannah Challenger.

Top-seed Tim Smyczek defeated wild card Stefan Kozlov 6-4, 6-1 (photo: twitter Savannah Challenger)

Off the court, our first community event, SATA Ladies’ Day, gets underway at 10:00a.  Ladies’ will participate in court activities featuring fun drills and games with the fitness department also on-site providing several stations of fun exercises. To top it all off there will be two demo courts sponsored by Wilson and Head.

(Savannah Challenger press release)