SAVANNAH, April 27, 2015
Number four seed Hyeon Chung defeated James McGee winning 6-3, 6-2 to claim the singles title of the seventh edition of the St. Joseph’s/Candler Savannah Challenger on Sunday.
Chung took the early lead in the first set, but McGee started to make a comeback. The 18-year-old Korean was able to convert four break points and fired in 73% of his first serves to take the first set 6-3. In the second set, McGee and Chung fought hard with most games going to quite a few deuces. But it was Chung that once again prevailed winning the final set 6-2 and sealed victory in one hour and 22 minutes. The Korean captured his third ATP Challenger career title and has moved to 88th position being the third teenager within the Top 100 in Emirates ATP World Tour rankings.
“I tried to focus on every single point. I’m so happy to win,” said Chung afterwards and received US-$ 7.200 as well as 80 ranking points.
Hyeon Chung is the Savannah Challenger Champion 2015 (photo: Jacob Stuckey – SJ/C Savannah Challenger)
Hyeon Chung claimed his third ATP Challenger title and James McGee lost his second final (photo: Jacob Stuckey – SJ/C Savannah Challenger)
“I just couldn’t find a rhythm, I don’t know what it was,” McGee said. “It was a little windy and that didn’t help. I couldn’t start the point off on my terms and I think that hurt my confidence. And in fairness to him, he hardly made a mistake. He’s a really good athlete. He’s like a brick wall. He was the better player today. He’s excellent with a rock-solid game, absolutely world class. To be top 100 at 18, I think he has a massive future,” the Irish, who earned US-$ 4200 and 48 ATP ranking points, added.
Frances Tiafoe is still in the lead for the USTA French Open wild Card (photo: Jacob Stuckey – SJ/C Savannah Challenger)
With the St. Joseph’s/Candler Savannah Challenger now over, Frances Tiafoe is in the lead of the USTA French Open wild card competition with 47 points. Bjorn Fratengelo and Jared Donaldson are close behind with 37 and 33 points respectively. Mitchell Krueger has 23 points.
In the doubles final, the number one seeded team of Guillermo Duran and Horacio Zeballos defeated Dennis Novikov and Julio Peralta winning 6-4, 6-3. It was an extremely close match but the seeds rose to the occasion taking the title after 65 minutes.
Guillermo Duran and Horacio Zeballos took the doubles title (photo: Jacob Stuckey – SJ/C Savannah Challenger)
