BRUNSWICK, July 11, 2015
Filip Krajinovic is the new champion of the Sparkassen Open in Brunswick, the biggest ATP Challenger event in Germany, winning the final on a sunny Saturday against Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 6-4.
In front of about 1,800 spectators, the 23-year-old Serbian was the dominant player with solid groundstrokes, fired six aces and won 76% of his first service points to seal victory in one hour and 21 minutes.
Centre Court Braunschweig
Filip Krajinovic after converting match point
Filip Krajinovic and Paul-Henri Mathieu met for the first time on the tour
Mathieu, who lost last year’s final in Brunswick to Alexander Zverev has become a two time runner-up but is looking ahead optimistically.
„My goal is to break into the top 100 again,“ Mathieu told afterwards. “I am going to play the tournaments in Gstaad and Kitzbühel next and hope to continue with good results.”
Krajinovic, who was a bit in a hurry, as he is heading back to Serbia to catch his flight on Sunday to Argentina for the Davis Cup quarterfinals tie, told afterwards:
Filip Krajinovic claimed his first title of the season
The world number 122 Sombor native claimed his third ATP Challenger title and takes away € 15,300 in prize money, as well as 125 ATP ranking points, which helps him to qualify for the US-Open main draw later this year.
Earlier the day, Sergey Betov and Mikhail Elgin clinched their fourth team title, winning the doubles final against Damir Dzumhur and Franko Skugor 3-6, 6-1, 10-5 in one hour and 11 minutes. For Betov it was the second great experience in recent time, as he also has become a father two days ago.
“It’s the biggest title, we won together. It was a great week for us and we played good tennis. We will problably stick together as a team, playing Bastad and hopefully Gstaad as well as the US-Open,” Elgin said.
Sergey Betov (right) and Mikhail Elgin
Harald Tenzer, CEO of the Brunswiek Marketing GmbH, licence holder and organizer of the ATP Challenger event since 2007 was pleased with this year’s edition. “Despite the capricious weather conditions between tropical heat and rain, we are very satisfied with this week. About 31,000 visitors came to the venue and we confirmed our status as best Challenger in the world.”
In March the tournament was awarded by the ATP as “best ATP Challenger in the world 2014”. The official ceremony will take place during the ATP World Tour Finals in November in London. “It was an honour for us to receive this award,” told Tenzer. “It is a confirmation for our hard work in the last couple of years as well as an appreciation for our great team work.”
World Champion 2014 ATP Challenger Tour – proudly promoted in Braunschweig
Harald Tenzer
It has been the tournament’s first edition since Michael Stich left the organization team. “I have to thank Michael for the last five years and the great co-operation we had. Unfortunately, due to financial aspects, we could not renew the contract,” Tenzer explained. Stich was tournament director in Brunswick from 2010 to 2014.
“Stich’s tasks were taken over from our head of the organization team Volker Jäcke in co-operation with the ATP supervisor Roland Herfel and it worked very well. We enjoyed a great week of first class-tennis as well as an excellent entertaining programme. But after the tournament is before the tournament. We will analyse this year’s edition and try to optimise it in the future,” he said.
