BINGHAMTON, July 29, 2019

The 2019 Levene Gouldin & Thompson (LG&T) Tennis Challenger champions have been crowned with Yuichi Sugita taking home the singles crown and Max Purcell and Luke Saville securing the doubles title.

Kicking off action on Sunday was the doubles final with No. 1 seeds Max Purcell and Luke Saville of Australia  taking on the No. 2 seeds JC Aragone and Alex Lawson from the United States. In the first set, Purcell and Saville made
their move at 4-4, breaking the US-American duo and closing out the set 6-4. In the second, it would be Aragone and Lawson taking the second set in the same fashion, forcing a third set tiebreak. Purcell and Saville were able to race ahead and close out the match with a final score of 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 to claim their sixth doubles title of the year.

In singles, Yuichi Sugita and Joao Menezes of Brazil took to the court in hopes of picking up their first title in Binghamton. In the first set, Sugita and Menezes stay neck and neck with each other to get to 6-6. It was Sugita though who would take the opener 7-6(2). In the second set, Menezes was able to turn things around and race through the set 6-1 to force a third. In the decisive set, Sugita was able to turn the tides and claim his 10th ATP Challenger title with a final score of 7-6(2), 1-6, 6-2 after one hour and 50 minutes.

Your champion @BingChallenger is Yuichi Sugita!

It’s #ATPChallenger title No. 🔟 for @sugitayuichi88, overcoming Joao Menezes 76(2) 16 62. pic.twitter.com/iMeyc6PNb0

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 28, 2019

“This is really, really important,” said Sugita, who collected $7,200 in prize money as well as 80 ATP Ranking points. “I forgot what is my tennis, but these five matches has got my intensity back. My tennis has come back, so this is a big win for this title.”

Sugita now heads to China for his next event, knowing that he will have a spot in US Open qualifying tournament.